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WHAT   JESUS   CHRIST   THOUGHT 
OF    HIMSELF 


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THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  -    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY  •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST 

THOUGHT  OF 

HIMSELF 

An  Outline  Study  and  Interpretation  of 
His  Self -Revelation  in  the  Gospels 

BY  \ 

ANSON   PHELPS   STOKES     l-V/^o,  „ 


NeiD  §0rfe 

THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1916 

All  Tighti  reser'ved 


Copyright,  1916, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  March,  1916. 


Ncrbjooli  IPnaa 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


Zo 

C.   M.  P.  S. 


PREFACE 

This  small  book  has  grown  out  of  studies 
made  for  my  graduation  thesis  at  the  Episcopal 
Theological  School,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
in  1900.  Certain  sections  were  used  for  a  lec- 
ture on  the  Slocum  Foundation  in  Ann  Arbor  in 
1 9 14,  although  no  part  of  the  work  has  hereto- 
fore been  published.  My  main  purpose  has  been 
to  try  to  show  in  clear,  compact  form,  and  in 
untechnical  language,  what  any  scholarly  student 
of  the  New  Testament  may  find  out  for  himself  as 
to  Jesus'  view  of  his  own  person.  A  secondary 
purpose  has  been  to  interpret  this  self-revealed 
personality.  The  study  —  which  is  merely  an 
outline  treatment,  with  references  to  the  Gospels, 
and  comments  —  is  designed  to  meet  the  most 
fundamental  needs  of  thoughtful  laymen  in  the 
field  of  Christology.  It  quotes  only  from  the 
Bible,  the  primary  basis  of  historical  knowledge 
of  the   subject.     The  writer  is  aware  that  some 


viii  PREFACE 

of  the  passages  quoted  may  be  questioned,  and 
some  of  the  interpretations  disputed.  This  is 
inevitable  in  matters  about  which  there  is  much 
difference  of  responsible  opinion,  but  he  believes 
that  the  views  given  will  generally  be  found  to 
be  consistent  with  those  of  most  recognized  schol- 
ars who  combine  open-mindedness  with  reverence. 
The  study  is  prepared  from  the  point  of  view  of 
a  seeker  after  the  truth,  who  is  neither  a  theolo- 
gian nor  an  authority  on  New  Testament  Criti- 
cism, but  who  has  followed  with  interest  and 
appreciation  the  work  of  both,  believing  the  right 
understanding  of  Christ  a  matter  of  supreme 
importance. 

I  realize  that  if  this  little  book  receives  any 
attention  it  will  be  attacked  from  two  opposite 
sides.  Liberal  critics  will  complain  because  it 
makes  some  slight  supplementary  use  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  Some  conservatives,  on  the 
other  hand,  will  think  the  conclusions  unortho- 
dox, and  not  consistent  with  Nicene  theology. 
But  it  is  believed  that  all  will  recognize  the 
author's  sincere  devotion  to  the  Person  of  Christ, 
and  his  earnest  attempt  to  show  the  latter's  con- 
sciousness of  Messiahship. 


PREFACE  ix 

The  general  subject  of  this  book  has  been 
little  emphasized  either  in  England  or  America. 
There  are  sections  in  the  Biblical  encyclopedias, 
and  in  works  on  the  Divinity  of  Christ  and  on 
the  Life  of  Christ,  that  deal  with  aspects  of  the 
subject ;  but  the  author  has  found  few  independent, 
systematic  treatments  of  it  as  a  whole.  Balden- 
sperger's  "  Selbstbewusstein  Jesu "  and  Stalker's 
"  Christology  of  Jesus "  are,  perhaps,  the  most 
important  works  that  have  appeared,  and  they 
are  both  more  than  fifteen  years  old.  The  former 
deals  almost  entirely  with  the  Messiahship,  and 
it  is  not  available  in  an  English  translation.  The 
latter  book  is  mainly  restricted,  as  its  title  and 
chapter  headings  show,  to  a  consideration  of  the 
divine  attributes  of  Jesus,  as  Son  of  Man,  Son  of 
God,  Messiah,  Redeemer,  and  Judge.  It  lays  no 
emphasis  on  the  witness  of  the  Gospels  to  the 
Master's  consciousness  of  his  complete  humanity 
—  a  factor  that  is  vital  to  a  right  understanding 
of  his  person.  Both  are  scholarly  works  which  the 
author  purposely  refrained  from  reading  until  the 
present  volume  was  well  advanced  in  preparation. 
By  this  method  the  reader  is  assured  an  independ- 
ent study  of  the  Gospel  material  and,  at  the  same 


X  PREFACE 

time,  the  addition  of  any  facts  or  views  which  the 
reading  of  these  books  may  have  suggested  as 
valuable.  The  hope  is  expressed  that  the  result- 
ing picture  of  the  many-sided,  self-revealed  Christ 
here  portrayed  will  give  the  lay  public  a  clearer 
and  more  inclusive  view  of  his  thought  about 
himself  than  these  volumes  of  broader  scholarship 
but  of  more  restricted  scope.  The  material  is  so 
arranged  as  to  be  specially  available  as  a  basis  of 
study  for  Bible  classes  in  colleges. 

The  author  will  be  glad  if  this  simple  presenta- 
tion of  the  subject  proves  an  incentive  to  further 
study  by  ministers  and  laymen,  and  if  in  this  age 
of  theological  questioning  and  reconstruction,  it 
helps  to  clear  the  air  of  some  misconceptions, 
especially  by  showing  that  the  views  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  held  by  many  liberally-minded  but 
devout  people  to-day,  although  denounced  by 
some  conservative  theologians,  are  in  accordance 
with  the  teachings  of  the  Master  himself.  To 
those  who  believe  that  the  modern  call  "  Back 
to  Christ "  is  valid  as  the  final  criterion  for  the 
teachings  of  Christianity,  there  seems  to  be  no 
reason  why  the  same  method  of  study  should  not 
produce  equally  sound  results  in  the  field  of  his 


PREFACE  xi 

self-interpretation.  We  shall  try,  therefore,  to 
find  out  "  What  Jesus  Christ  Thought  of  Him- 
self" as  a  key  to  a  right  understanding  of  what 

we  should  think  of  him. 

A.  P.  S. 

Secretary's  Office, 

Yale  University, 
January  i,  1916. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface vii 

I.     Introduction  —  Significance  of  the  Subject;  Sources 
of  Information;     Metliod   of  Treatment;    The 

Fundamental  Unity  of  Jesus'  Personality    .         .  i 

II.     The  Human  Side  of  Jesus  Christ       ...  9 

1.  Consciousness  of  Limitations.        .        .  11 

2.  Consciousness   of    Deriving    All   from 

God 17 

3.  Consciousness     of     Subordination     in 

Prayer 22 

III.    The  Divine  Side  of  Jesus  Christ       ...  27 

1.  Master  of  the  Past         ....  27 

A.  Consciousness  of  Fulfilling  the  Old  Tes- 

tament    ......  28 

B.  Consciousness  of  Superseding  the  Law   .  30 

C.  Consciousness  of  Being  the  Messiah         .  37 

2.  Master  of  the  Present  ....  47 
A.  Consciousness  of  Complete  Righteousness  48 
3.    Consciousness  of  Absolute  Leadership     .  51 

C.  Consciousness  of  Authority      •         •         •  S3 

D.  Consciousness  of  Founding  the  Kingdom  57 

E.  Consciousness    of    Mastery    of    Nature's 

Laws  ("  Miracles ")           ...  60 

F.  Consciousness  of  Revealing  God's  Char- 

acter          70 

G.  Consciousness  of  Power  to  Forgive  Sins  .  73 
H.  Consciousness  of  Unique  Sonship    .         .  75 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

3.   Master  of  the  Future    .        .        .        .81 

A.  Consciousness  of  Determining  Salvation      82 

B.  Consciousness  of  Decreeing  Judgment     .       87 

C.  Consciousness  of  Universal  Mission         .       90 

D.  Consciousness  of  Suffering  for  the  Sins 

of  Humanity 92 

E.  Consciousness  of  Foreknowing  Resurrec- 

tion   95 

F.  Consciousness  of  Returning  to  Influence 

the  World 97 

IV.    Conclusion  —  Interpretation    of    the    Self- 
revealed  Christ 103 

The  Reconciliation  of  the  Human  and  Divine  Ele- 
ments ;  The  Messiahship  ;  The  Incarnation  ; 
The  Latent  Divine  Sonship  of  Humanity 


WHAT  JESUS   CHRIST   THOUGHT 
OF    HIMSELF 


WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT 
OF  HIMSELF^ 

I.   INTRODUCTION 

The  title  of  this  book  is  the  expression  in 
simple  language  of  what  psychologists  would 
call  "the  self-consciousness  of  Christ."  The 
phrase  may  be  used  as  a  brief  designation  of 
Jesus'  conception  of  his  own  nature,  of  his 
view  of  his  special  relationship  to  God  and  to 
man.  This  sprang  out  of  the  very  depths  of 
his  God-filled  being.  It  was  not  reached  in- 
tellectually through  the  reason,  and  yet  there 
was  doubtless  a  growth  in  his  consciousness 
of  his  unique  mission.  We  see  it  in  its  early 
stages  when  he  was  twelve  years  old,  in  the 
story  of  his  visit  to  the  Temple.  His  reply 
to  his  parents  who  sought  him,    "Wist  ye  not 

^  Except  where  specially  qualified,  the  personal  name  Jesus 
and  the  more  oificial  title  Christ  are  used  almost  interchange- 
ably in  this  book  for  the  historical  person  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 


2      WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's  business  ?"^ 
or  as  the  Revised  Version  has  it  "in  my  Fa- 
ther's house,"  can  be  understood  only  when 
we  realize  that  he  had  at  least  an  extraordi- 
nary interest  in  fitting  himself  for  his  God- 
given  task.  His  conviction  that  he  was  God's 
special  messenger  to  humanity  was  still  fur- 
ther strengthened  by  the  profoundly  signifi- 
cant spiritual  experience  at  the  baptism,  when 
"the  heavens  opened"^  —  never  to  be  closed 
for  him.  It  is  evidenced  early  in  his  ministry 
by  his  words  in  the  first  sermon  at  Nazareth.^ 
There  were  later  moments  of  exalted  convic- 
tion of  the  world-significance  of  his  person 
and  work,  such  as  the  Transfiguration,  and 
in  general  the  events  of  the  last  few  days  of 
his  earthly  life,  but  there  is  not  a  single 
chapter  of  any  gospel  that  does  not  breathe 
the  wonderful  atmosphere  of  a  personality 
conscious  of  unique  authority. 

The  fundamental  question  in  Christian  the- 
ology is  not  "What  think  ye  of  Christ?"^ 
but   "What   did   Christ   think   of  himself?" 

^  Luke  2  .  49.     In  Revised  Version  "in  my  Father's  house." 
"  Mark  1 :  10.  ^  Luke  4:  18-21.  *  Matt.  22  :  42. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

The  Intelligent  answer  to  the  former  depends 
largely  on  the  latter.  If  we  can  but  find  out 
what  the  Saviour  thought  of  his  own  person, 
his  own  relation  to  God  and  man,  the  whole 
field  of  religious  thought  will  be  clarified. 
It  is  with  answers  to  these  questions  as 
given  by  Jesus  himself  that  this  book 
deals. 

Fortunately  the  material  available  for  study 
is  large,  consisting  of  his  words  and  acts  re- 
corded In  the  gospels.  In  this  connection  it 
should  be  remembered  that  he  laid  great  em- 
phasis on  the  divine  authority  and  permanent 
value  of  his  sayings,^  and  these  are  often  so 
strikingly  original  that  they  bear  their  own 
authentication. 

Quotations  have  been  made  from  the  King 
James'  or  Authorized  Version,  as  this  is  still 
In  most  common  use  in  our  churches.  The 
stress  Is  placed  on  the  Synoptic  tradition, 
which  carries  the  weight  of  the  evidence  on 
which  this  volume  is  based.  Passages  from 
the  Fourth  Gospel  that  have  not  near  parallels 

1  Cf.  Matt.  7 :  24-27 ;  Luke  10:  42;  21 :  33  ;  John  14:23, 
24,  etc. 


4      WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

in  the  earlier  records  are  seldom  quoted  in 
the  text,  and  never  emphasized.  The  author 
is  not  unaware  that  the  general  conclusion  of 
modern  critical  scholarship,  which  he  accepts, 
gives  the  greatest  historical  value  to  the  two 
earliest  sources :  the  Gospel  of  Mark  (omit- 
ting the  appendix,  xvi,  9-20)  —  the  original 
narrative  source;  and  the  so-called  "Logia," 
the  words  or  teachings  of  Jesus  in  Matthew 
and  Luke  —  the  original  teaching  source. 
These  —  omitting  a  few  passages  —  repre- 
sent rock-bottom  in  so  far  as  our  most  trust- 
worthy knowledge  of  the  Master  is  concerned, 
but  the  Fourth  Gospel  has  corroborative, 
and,  when  not  inconsistent  with  the  earlier 
tradition,  supplementary  value,  especially  for 
the  impression  made  by  Jesus  on  a  devout 
and  philosophical  disciple.  Although  the 
three  other  gospels,  the  Synoptics,  were 
written  from  65  to  90  a.d.,  and  this  new  record 
did  not  appear  until  a  generation  later  (about 
the  year  100),  yet  its  unconscious  tributes  to 
the  Master's  humanity  in  the  midst  of  the 
divine  exaltation  of  his  person,  are  of  sig- 
nificance, being  an  unmistakable  sign  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  5 

survival  of  the  original  impression.  State- 
ments in  the  text  indicate  its  points  of  main 
divergence  from  the  Synoptic  teaching,  as 
well  as  differences  of  emphasis,  while  footnote 
references  to  all  the  passages  quoted  will 
enable  the  reader  who  so  desires  to  discount 
the  value  of  Johannine  material,  even  though 
this  is  used  with  much  restraint.  That  it 
contains  some  matter  of  supplementary  im- 
portance for  an  understanding  of  Christ's 
thought  about  himself  none  but  the  most 
extreme  critic  would  deny. 

In  fact  it  is  just  here  that  the  Fourth  Gospel 
is  of  great  significance,  irrespective  of  its 
authorship.  It  is  illustrative  and  interpretive, 
rather  than  strictly  biographical  or  historical. 
The  recollections  of  old  age  and  the  reflections 
of  a  contemplative  spirit,  which  it  represents, 
may  be  lacking  in  chronological  accuracy  and 
in  exactness  of  memory  as  to  words  heard  or 
heard  of  in  earlier  years,  and  yet  give  a  valu- 
able picture  of  another's  character,  thought, 
and  most  striking  utterances.  In  this  con- 
nection it  is  noticeable  that  the  main  con- 
clusions of  this  volume  would  remain  the  same 


6      WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

even  if  the  Johannine  ^  sections  were  en- 
tirely omitted.  Contrary  to  the  general  im- 
pression derived  from  the  reading  of  some 
critical  works,  it  will  be  seen  from  the  follow- 
ing pages  that  the  humanity  of  Jesus  is  well 
supported  by  his  words  and  acts  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  and  his  so-called  "divinity,"  if 
rightly  interpreted,  in  the  Synoptics.  But, 
undoubtedly,  the  latter  give  the  truest  pic- 
ture of  the  historical  Jesus,  and  their  ac- 
counts must  be  followed  when  there  are 
differences  in  the  impressions  made  by  the 
two  records.  That  the  Johannine  Christ, 
in  keeping  with  its  author's  metaphysical 
interests,  makes  more  exalted  and  more 
frequent  claims  to  divine  dignity,  as  distinct 
from  power,  than  the  Christ  of  the  earlier 
gospels,  cannot  be  questioned.  This  ap- 
pears in  the  sections  which  discuss  his  con- 
sciousness of  unique  sonship,  and  of  returning 
to  influence  the  world.  But  even  in  each  of 
these  extreme  cases  Synoptic  bases  for  the 
claims  of  the  later  narrative  are  pointed  out, 

^  This  word  is  used  as  a  description  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
without  any  attempt  to  identify  the  evangelist. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

while  on  the  other  hand  there  is  nowhere  in 
the  New  Testament  a  clearer  group  of  state- 
ments/ showing  Jesus'  conviction  that  he 
merely  represented  another  —  God,  who  was 
the  source  of  all  his  power,  than  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel. 

The  most  casual  reading  of  the  gospels  dis- 
closes the  fact  that  there  were  two  channels  or 
streams  in  which  this  consciousness  of  Jesus 
Christ  flowed  —  the  divine  and  the  human  — 
which,  uniting  in  him,  constituted  the  Incar- 
nation. These  form  the  main  divisions  of 
this  work,  but  the  Master's  genuine  humanity- 
is  so  apparent  and  so  generally  recognized  to- 
day, that  it  will  be  dealt  with  more  briefly. 
It  is  essential,  however,  that  the  human  life 
lived  in  Palestine  nineteen  hundred  years  ago, 
with  its  knowledge  of  limitations  and  of  sub- 
ordination to  God,  be  clearly  grasped,  before 
the  life,  known  to  its  possessor  as  divine  in  its 
essential  being,  is  considered.  And  yet  be- 
fore studying  these  two  sides  separately  it 
should  be  stated  emphatically  that  the  Bib- 
lical doctrine  of  creation  implies  a  kinship 
^  See  page  19. 


8      WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

between  creator  and  created  that  rules  out 
all  inseparable  walls  between  them.  God 
created  man  in  his  "image"  and  after  his 
"likeness,"  ^  so  that  in  man  as  man  there  is 
the  latent  divine  spark.  The  words  "  human  " 
and  "divine"  stand  for  important  and  con- 
venient distinctions,  but  not  necessarily  for 
any  antagonism.  In  Jesus  the  two  elements 
were  perfectly  united,  forming  a  single  uni- 
fied personality. 

^  Gen.  1 :  26. 


II.  THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST 

That  Jesus  lived  a  thoroughly  human  life 
is  indisputable.  Docetism  —  the  old  theory 
that  his  body  was  entirely  a  phantom,  with- 
out physical  reality  —  is  an  obsolete  explana- 
tion of  his  person.  His  bodily  organism  did  not 
differ  from  that  of  normal  men.  He  learned 
his  lessons  as  other  Hebrew  boys  learned 
theirs.  His  power  was  not  full  grown  at 
the  start.  The  child  Jesus  grew.^  He  "in- 
creased in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  In  favour 
with  God  and  man."  ^  He  was  subject  to 
man's  feelings.  We  are  told  that  he  was 
wearied  with  his  journey,^  that  he  was  thirsty,* 
that  he  ate  and  drank,  ^  that  he  slept,  ^  that 
he  was  sad  at  heart  and  troubled  In  spirit,^ 

'Luke  2:  40.  2  Luke  2:  52.  ^  John  4:  6. 

^  John  4:  7;    19:28.  ^ Matt.  11:19. 

«Matt.  8:24;  cf.  8:20. 
^Mark  14:34;  8:  12;  Matt.  26:38. 

9 


lO    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

that  he  wept,^  that  he  craved  companion- 
ship,^ that  temptation  was  a  reality  to  him,^ 
that  he  was  astonished  and  surprised  at 
things  which  happened/  that  he  showed 
curiosity,^  that  he  shrank  from  pain,^ 
that  he  was  quick  to  notice  courtesy/  that 
he  felt  the  need  of  supporting  his  position  by 
reference  to  scripture/  that  he  was  specially 
fond  of  his  friends/  and  of  his  country/" 
that  he  was  indignant  against  those  whom 
he  believed  to  be  false  leaders  of  the  people/^ 
and  that  he  even  showed  signs  of  impatience 
on  certain  occasions. ^^  He  prayed  to  God 
constantly  and  with  great  intensity/^  he 
spoke  the  language  of  the  place  and  time/^ 
he  worked  at  the  carpenter's  bench/^  he  was  a 
man  indeed  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we 

*  Luke  19:41;   John  11:  35. 

'Matt.  26:38;  cf.  John  1 1 :  3-5  ;    12:2, 
3  Matt.  4  :  i-i  I ;  cf.  Luke  22  :  28. 

*  Mark  6:6;  Luke  7:9.  *  Luke  2  :  46. 

'  Luke  22  :  42.  ^  Mark  14 :  6-9;  cf.  Luke  7  :  44-46. 

8  Matt.  4:4;   7:10.  5  John  11:5. 

^°  Matt.  23  :  37-39.  "  Luke  ii :  46  and  passim. 

"  Mark  7:6;  Luke  2  :  49 ;  John  2  :  4. 
^'  Matt.  8  :  10;  Mark  6 :  6  and  passim. 
"  Matt.  27 :  46.  1*  Mark  6:3. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  ii 

are  and  feeling  that  it  was  best  that  he  should 
undergo  the  rite  of  baptism  "of  repentance 
for  the  remission  of  sins,"^  yet  without  sin 
himself,^  for  he  moved  among  men  as  one 
who  always  made  practice  square  with  precept. 
That  he  was  conscious  of  this  complete 
humanity,  which  the  people  never  ques- 
tioned,^ is  shown  by  his  words  and  acts. 
It  is  evident,  In  particular,  from  his 

1.  Consciousness  of  Limitations, 

2.  Consciousness  of  Deriving  All  from  God, 

3.  Consciousness  of  Subordination  In 
Prayer. 

I.  Consciousness  of  Limitations.  There  Is 
an  incident  recorded  both  by  Matthew  *  and 
Mark  ^  in  which  this  realization  of  limitations 
is  evident.  The  sons  of  Zebedee  request  of 
the  Master  that  they  may  sit  the  one  on  his 
right  hand,  the  other  on  his  left,  in  his  glory. 
He  replies  that  the  granting  of  such  a  re- 
quest is  not  "mine  to  give,"  but  that  this 
privilege  is  restricted  to  those  "for  whom  It 
Is    prepared    of    my    Father"  —  an    answer 

^  Mark  4:  4-9.  ^jjeb.  4:15;  cf.  Matt.  4:  i-ii. 

•Matt.  21:11.  *  Matt.  20:23.  'Mark  10:  40. 


12    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

which  may  be  compared  with  his  statement, 
as  recorded  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  that  "no 
man  can  come  unto  me,  except  it  were  given 
unto  him  of  my  Father."  ^  The  reconcili- 
ation of  these  passages  with  others  in  which 
Christ  is  represented  as  the  absolute  judge 
is  not  now  our  task;  suffice  it  here  to  point 
out  the  expression  on  his  part  of  the  con- 
viction that  there  were  powers  belonging  to 
God  the  Father  which  did  not  belong  to 
him. 

Another  example  of  this  is  his  statement 
that  he  was  unaware  of  the  time  of  his  second 
coming.  "Of  that  day  and  that  hour  know- 
eth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  which  are  in 
Heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father."  ^ 
One  who  knew  himself  to  be  God,  without 
assumed  or  imposed  human  limitations,  could 
not  so  restrict  the  field  of  his  knowledge. 
On  the  other  hand  he  who  spoke  those  words 
was  aware  that  the  God  in  Heaven  was 
all-powerful  and  perfect  —  the  possessor 
of  powers  which  did  not  belong  to  his  earthly 
revealer.     That   the   historical   person   Jesus 

*  John  6 :6s.  ''Matt.  24:  36;  Mark  13:  32. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  13 

Christ  claimed  omnipotence  or  omniscience 
is  nowhere  stated.  On  the  contrary  we  are 
told  that  owing  to  the  lack  of  faith  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  Nazareth  "he  could 
there  do  no  mighty  work."  ^  Similarly  he 
claimed  no  power  of  knowing  purely  physical 
conditions  or  events  at  a  distance.  He  went 
up  close  to  the  fig  tree  to  find  out  whether 
or  not  It  bore  fruit.^  That  knowledge  pos- 
sessed by  God  and  figuratively  expressed  in 
the  saying  that  the  very  hairs  of  our  head 
are  numbered,  was  not  his.  In  fact  it  is  not 
improbable  that  Jesus  was  in  error  regarding 
certain  matters  of  knowledge,  such  as  his 
belief  that  Jonah  was  actually  in  the  belly 
of  the  whale  alive  for  three  days,^  that  David 
wrote  the  iioth  Psalm,^  that  men  were 
possessed  by  demons,^  that  the  forces  of  evil 
were  led  by  an  actual  personality  —  the 
Devil,  or  Satan,^  and  that  the  visible  second 
coming  of  Christ  and  the  final  world-judg- 
ment were  near  at  hand.^     In  such  matters, 

1  Mark  6 :  5-6.  ^^^tt.  21 :  19;   Mark  11:  13. 

^  Matt.  12:40.  ^  Matt.  22 :  43,  44. 

^  Luke  4 -.33.  ^  Matt.  4:10;    13  :  19,  etc. 

^  Mark  13  :  24-30;  Matt.  16  :  28,  etc. 


14    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

outside  of  the  sphere  of  the  soul's  positive 
religious  life  and  experience,  his  information 
was  based  on  that  of  his  place  and  time.  His 
wisdom,  which  was  God-given  and  God-nur- 
tured, was  unmatched,  but  his  actual  knowl- 
edge of  the  facts  of  history  and  science  was 
limited. 

Similarly  the  help  upon  which  he  relied 
at  great  crises  was  not  self-evolved.  It  was 
the  spiritual  help  which  God  alone  could 
supply.  As  he  said  to  the  traitor  Judas, 
*'Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to 
my  Father,  and  he  shall  presently  give  me 
more  than  twelve  legions  of  angels  ? "  ^  In 
the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  he  exclaimed  In 
agony,  "Father,  all  things  are  possible  unto 
thee ;  take  away  this  cup  from  me :  never- 
theless not  what  I  will,  but  what  thou  wilt."  ^ 
This  prayer  Implies  his  feeling  of  limitations. 
There  were  powers  which  God  the  Father 
enjoyed  which  were  not  In  the  Son's  pos- 
session, and  he  asks  that  they  may  be  used 
in  his  behalf.  The  words  also  infer  that 
there  was  a  human  side  of  Christ,  whose  will 
1  Matt.  26:  S3.  '  Mark  14 :  36. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  15 

might  differ  from  the  will  of  God,  although 
he  prays  that  this  may  not  happen.^  So 
conscious  was  he  of  this  that  it  is  recorded 
in  all  the  Synoptics  that  he  refused  to  be 
called  "good,"  saying  that  "there  is  none 
good  but  one,  that  is,  God,"  ^  a  statement  which 
may,  however,  mean  no  more  than  that  God 
is  the  source,  the  original  cause,  of  all  holi- 
ness and  power.  Again,  in  the  supreme 
moment  on  the  Cross,  when  suffering  both 
physical  and  spiritual  were  at  their  height, 
and  when  for  the  moment  all  seemed  black 
and  hopeless,  we  hear  the  cry,  "My  God,  my 
God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"^  No 
amount  of  exegetical  jugglery  can  induce 
the  open  minded  student  to  believe  that 
these  words  were  uttered  by  one  unconscious 
of  his  own  limitations  in  comparison  with 
the  Deity.  Had  Jesus  been  God,  without 
the  restrictions  of  humanity,  it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  he  should  have  so  spoken. 
He  also  frequently  asked  questions  to  secure 

^  John  12:  27. 

^Markioriy,  18;   Luke  18:  19;   Matt.  19:17;  cf.  Matt. 
12:32. 

*Mark  15  :34. 


1 6    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

information  —  which  omniscience  would  not 
have  found  necessary.^ 

Let  us  take,  finally,  a  passage  from  the 
Fourth  Gospel.  This  gospel  is  generally  re- 
garded as  representing  in  the  most  extreme 
form  the  claims  of  Jesus  to  divine  dignity  — 
colored  by  its  author's  own  spiritual  reflec- 
tions on  the  Lord's  person  —  but  even  here 
he  is  reported  as  saying  "My  Father  is 
greater  than  L"  ^  One  to  be  greater  must 
be  the  possessor  of  powers  of  a  higher  kind 
or  in  a  less  restricted  form  than  the  one  with 
whom  he  is  compared.  So  the  Jesus  of  John 
must  be  considered  as  having  been  conscious 
of  limitations.  It  is  maintained,  then,  as 
shown  by  a  study  of  his  own  words,  that 
he  knew  himself  to  be  hemmed  in  by  some 
restrictions.  He  did  not  think  of  his  own 
capacities  as  unlimited.  Some  of  the  old 
school  theologians  recognized  this  frankly, 
but  tried  to  explain  it  by  the  doctrine  of  the 
Kenosis  —  the  deliberate  giving  up  by  Jesus 
of  certain  divine  powers. 

1  Cf.  Mark  5  :  30;  6:38;  9:21;  John  11:34. 
»John  14:28. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  17 

2.  Consciousness  of  Deriving  All  from  God. 
We  pass  from  different  definite  statements 
of  limited  power,  which  emphasize  Jesus' 
consciousness  of  his  own  humanity,  to  his 
oft-repeated  statement  that  he  and  his  mes- 
sage were  not  of  himself,  but  of  God.  Both 
were  thought  of  by  him  as  derivative. 

The  gospels  make  it  clear  that  Jesus  did 
not  come  into  the  world  of  his  own  initiative. 
He  was  sent  by  another,  and  knew  it.^  That 
he  shared  that  other's  spirit  we  do  not  deny, 
yet  the  one  who  sends  is  the  source,  the 
origin,  the  first  cause,  and,  consequently,  to 
some  extent  the  greater.  The  essence  of  the 
gospel  —  whether  the  words  quoted  are  au- 
thentic or  not  —  is  given  in  the  sixteenth 
verse  of  the  third  chapter  of  John,  and  the 
essence  of  that  verse  is  that  God  "gave"  his 
Son.  The  coming  of  Jesus  was  not  due  to 
his  own  independent  volition.  It  was,  as  the 
Bible  tells  us,  the  eternal  purpose  of  God  to 
reveal  himself  —  "When  the  fulness  of  the 
time  was  come  God  sent  forth  his  Son."  ^ 
But  we  are  studying  Christ's  consciousness, 

^  Luke  4:18;  21,  43 ;  cf.  John  3:16.  ^  Gal.  4 :  4. 

c 


1 8    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

not  that  of  evangelists  or  disciples.  And 
here  the  evidence  is  convincing  that  he  felt 
that  a  higher  power  was  responsible  for  his 
mission  and  work.  Both  Synoptists  and  the 
Fourth  Gospel  bring  this  out  clearly.  In 
Matthew  we  find  Jesus  attributing  his  power 
to  "the  Spirit  of  God";^  in  Mark  we  hear 
him  acknowledging  that  there  are  things 
which  he  cannot  do^  but  saying  that  "with  God 
all  things  are  possible;"  ^  in  Luke  he  clearly 
states  his  view  that  he  was  merely  the  represent- 
ative of  "him  that  sent  me,"  ^  and  adds  "all 
things  are  delivered  to  me  of  my  Father."  ^ 

Even  as  shown  through  the  medium  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel,  with  its  tendency  to  exalt 
the  divine  dignity  of  the  Saviour,  it  is  man- 
ifest that  he  felt  his  appearance  in  this  world 
and  his  message  were  due  to  the  impulse  of 
a  higher  power.  Let  us  quote  the  words  of 
Christ  as  recorded  In  John,  remembering  that 
passages  involving  the  Synoptic  idea  of  the 
complete  subordination  of  Jesus  to  God  are 

*  Matt.  12  :  28.  2  Mark  10 :  40. 
^  Mark  10  :  27 ;   cf.  Matt.  19  :  26. 

*  Luke  9:  48.  ^  Luke  10:  22;  cf.  Matt.  11 :  27. 


THE   HUMAN   SIDE  OF  JESUS   CHRIST  19 

of  Special  significance  as  evidence  of  his 
humanity,  when  found  in  the  Gospel  whose 
author  was  committed  to  the  Logos  doctrine 
of  the  Lord's  origin.  "No  man  can  come  to 
me,  except  the  Father  which  hath  sent  me 
draw  him  .  .  .;"^  "My  doctrine  is  not 
mine,  but  his  that  sent  me;"^  "I  am  not 
come  of  myself,  but  he  that  sent  me  is  true, 
whom  ye  know  not.  But  I  know  him  :  for 
I  am  from  him,  and  he  hath  sent  me." ' 
"  I  must  work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me, 
while  it  is  day  .  .  ."  "* 

The  irresistible  impression  conveyed  by 
the  reading  of  these  utterances  thrown  to- 
gether as  above,  is  that  they  are,  or  are  based 
on,  the  words  of  one  who  recognizes  that 
his  life  and  influence  are  not  self-supplied  — 
his  power,  his  inspiration,  his  very  being  are 
derivative.  They  are  dependent  both  in 
origin  and  sustenance  upon  another.  The 
love  of  the  one  may  be  as  great  as  that  of 
the  other,  but   the  dependent  cannot  be   all 

^  John  6:  44;  cf.  John  12  :  44.        2  John  7  :  16. 
'  John  7  :  28-29 ;  cf-  John  5  :  30,  36 ;  6  :  38,  39. 
*John9:4;  cf.  also  John  7  :  33  ;  8:42;  11:42;  17:10, 
etc. 


20    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

powerful  in  all  spheres.  Not  only  do  these 
quotations  show  that  Jesus  knew  himself  to 
be  sent  of  God,  the  representative  of  another, 
God's  ambassador  to  a  fallen  world,  but 
they  show  that  for  his  beliefs  and  actions 
he  was  entirely  indebted  to  his  heavenly 
Father.  In  a  word,  the  message  and  the 
messenger  were  from  above.  Christ's  mes- 
sage was  not  his  —  that  is,  it  was  not  the 
result  of  his  own  unaided  thought,  —  it  was 
due  to  the  "Open  Heavens"  working  upon 
his  equally  open  spirit.  He  did  not  preach 
a  self-given  message.  What  God  brings  with 
conviction  to  his  heart,  this  he  proclaims  to 
others  :  "Whatsoever  I  speak  therefore,  even 
as  the  Father  said  unto  me,  so  I  speak."  ^ 
Any  man  who  lives  up  to  his  best  by  doing 
the  will  of  God,  may  readily  find  out,  so 
Jesus  tells  us,  whether  the  doctrine  which  he 
preaches  comes  from  God  or  from  himself.^ 
So  the  gospel  —  the  good  news  —  was  not, 
according  to  his  own  belief,  self-evolved,  but 
God-given.  All  that  he  possessed  in  the 
way    of    truth  —  his    message  — ,  as   well   as 

^  John  12:50;   cf.  17:14.  2john7:i7;   cf.  17:17. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  21 

all  that  he  himself  —  the  messenger  —  was, 
were  the  gift  of  the  heavenly  Father,  work- 
ing through  his  receptive  and  cooperating 
spirit.  No  wonder  that  he  gave  as  the  first 
commandment  that  "the  Lord  our  God  is 
one  Lord,"  and  that  he  should  be  loved  "with 
all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength."  ^ 
This  shows  the  true  emphasis.  Jesus  did 
not  care  that  men  should  praise  him  for  his 
helpful  preaching  :  he  preferred  that  "  they 
should  hear  the  word  of  God,  and  keep  it."^ 
The  God  whom  he  called  his  "Father  in 
heaven"  ^  was  the  beginning  and  end  of 
his  power  and  his  teaching.  It  was  his 
"kingdom"  that  he  came  to  proclaim.  His 
very  use  of  "  Father,"  as  his  favorite  designa- 
tion of  God,  is  an  evidence  of  his  sense  of 
dependence  upon  a  higher  power.  Prob- 
ably the  first  ^  and  last  ^  of  the  originally 
recorded  utterances  of  Jesus  include  the  word. 
It  is  found  in  all  the  gospels,  being  used  over 

^  Mark  12  :  28-30.  *  Luke  ii :  27,  28. 

^Matt.  6:9;  Luke  11:2. 

*  Luke  2 :  49.  '  Luke  23  :  46. 


22    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

150  times,  and  is  the  common  word  used  by 
Jesus  in  addressing  the  Deity  in  prayer,  or 
in  referring  to  the  personal  relation  between 
him  and  his  children.  This  is  the  more  im- 
pressive as  such  use  was  very  uncommon  in 
previous  religious  history.  Jesus  was  brought 
up  with  the  strict  view  that  the  father  was 
the  head  of  the  Jewish  household,  with  the 
children  always  subject  to  him,  so  when  he 
transferred  his  parental  designation  to  God 
he  carried  over  with  it  the  sense  of  due  sub- 
ordination, as  well  as  that  of  tender  love. 

3 .  Consciousness  of  Subordination  in  Prayer. 
The  third  and  most  striking  evidence  of 
difference  between  the  human  Jesus  and 
God  the  Father,  is  the  complete  subordi- 
nation of  the  former  to  the  latter  in  prayer. 

It  is  not  merely  to  a  "better  self"  within 
that  he  directs  his  appeals,  but  to  the  eternal 
God.^  It  is  noticeable  that  in  every  crisis 
he  resorts  to  prayer.  In  communion  with 
God  alone  does  complete  peace  and  assurance 
come  to  his  soul.     We  are  told  that  he  was 

*  Matt.  26 :  42-53  ;   Luke  11:2. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  23 

"praying"  at  the  time  of  his  baptism,^  and 
again  at  his  transfiguration.-  Before  the 
choice  of  the  Twelve,  the  first  step  in  the 
founding  of  the  Christian  Church,  we  find 
him  passing  the  long  night  in  prayer  to  God.^ 
Similarly,  before  his  first  serious  contest 
with  the  Jewish  hierarchy,  "he  withdrew 
himself  into  the  wilderness,  and  prayed."  * 
When  he  is  tempted  to  accept  the  kingly 
crown  as  a  short-cut  to  Messianic  power,  he 
retires  to  the  mountain,^  doubtless  to  pour 
out  his  thoughts  to  a  listening  and  answer- 
ing God.  It  is  specially  worthy  of  note  that 
it  was  while  watching  him  earnestly  engaged 
in  prayer  that  "when  he  ceased,  one  of  his 
disciples  said  unto  him.  Lord,  teach  us  to 
pray."  ^  In  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  his 
prayer  is  so  intense,  his  effort  to  put  his  own 
soul  in  unison  with  the  will  of  the  Eternal  is 
so  strenuous,  that  the  sweat  on  his  brow 
appears  as  "drops  of  blood"  —  an  expres- 
sion of  great  feeling  and  earnestness,  even  if 
the  words  are  not  taken  literally.     We  hear 

^  Luke  3  :  21.  'Luke  9:  29.  '  Luke  6  :  12,  13. 

^  Luke  5  :  16.  'John  6:   15.  'Luke  11  :i. 


24    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

his  agonized  cry,  "O  my  Father,  if  this  cup  may 
not  pass  away  from  me,  except  I  drink  it,  thy 
will  be  done."^  We  hear  him  at  the  tomb  of 
the  restored  Lazarus  giving  all  the  glory  to 
God,  "Father,  I  thank  thee  that  thou  hast 
heard  me."  ^  We  see  him  on  the  cross,  when 
in  the  moment  of  agony  the  whole  meaning 
and  power  of  his  life  are  summed  up  in  those 
short  words  "Eli,  Eli,"  ^  my  God,  my  God! 
We  hear  of  his  feeding  the  five  thousand  on 
five  loaves  and  two  fishes,  but  the  ability  to 
perform  this  miracle  was  not  his  own.  Notice 
the  beautiful  touch  in  the  gospel  story,  "He 
looked  up  to  heaven,  and  blessed,  and  brake  the 
loaves."^  And  again,  after  the  cure  of  the  man 
with  the  dumb  spirit,  he  said,  "This  kind  can 
come  forth  by  nothing,  but  by  prayer  [and 
fasting]."^  His  prayers  include  appeals  for 
help  for  himself,^  for  his  disciples,^  for  his  ene- 
mies,^ for  a  friend,^  for  the  whole  church.^" 

1  Matt.  26 :  42 ;  cf.  Mark  14:35,  36. 

2  John  11:41.  ^  Matt.  27:46.  ^  Mark  6:  41. 
^  Mark  9 :  29.     Words  in   brackets  omitted   in   Revised 

Version. 

«  Matt.  26:39;  Mark  14:35;  etc.  '' John  17 :  6-19. 

^  Luke  23:  34.  3  Luke  22:  32.  i"  John  17  :  20-26. 


THE  HUMAN  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  25 

Prayer  was,  humanly  speaking,  the  main 
secret  of  the  Master's  uniqueness.  He  was 
entirely  dependent  for  his  spiritual  food  upon 
his  heavenly  Father.  Take  communion  with 
God  out  of  his  life,  and  there  might  be  left 
us  an  ethical  ideal,  but  surely  there  would  be 
no  religion,  no  redeeming  power. 

Jesus  Christ  lived  a  human  life,  deriving 
his  being  and  drawing  his  inspiration  from  a 
divine  source.  As  distinguished  from  God, 
he  may  be  spoken  of  in  his  earthly  life  of 
struggle  ^  as  possessing  only  derivative  pow- 
ers. To  be  a  man  among  men  he  must 
needs  be  subject  to  the  limitations  of  human- 
ity. That  the  contemporaries  of  Jesus  fully 
appreciated  this  is  evident.  *' Never  man 
spake  like  this  man."^  "Not  that  any  man 
hath  seen  the  Father,  save  he  which  is  of 
God."  ^  The  disciples  had  walked  and 
talked  and  supped  with  him,  and  they  knew 
that  their  Master  had  flesh  and  blood,  and 
that  he  was  not  a  deity  of  ghost-like  appa- 
ritions.    But  our  task   is    not   to   determine 

^  Cf.  Luke  12  :  50. 

2  John  7  :  46 ;  cf.  Matt.  13:54.  '  John  6 :  46. 


26    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

what  Others  thought  of  him,  but  to  fathom 
his  own  self-consciousness.  Having  shown, 
therefore,  that  he  knew  that  he  was  subject 
to  some  of  the  limitations  of  our  humanity, 
that  he  was  in  truth,  as  he  called  himself, 
"the  Son  of  man"  —  a  term  suggestive  in  this 
connection,  in  spite  of  its  Messianic  signifi- 
cance —  it  remains  to  develop  at  greater 
length  the  sense  of  his  relationship  to  God ; 
and  finally  to  attempt  to  harmonize  the  man- 
ward  and  Godward  sides  of  his  consciousness. 


III.  THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS 
CHRIST 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  feature  of  the 
gospels  to  an  intelligent  non-Christian  reading 
them  for  the  first  time  is  the  evident  con- 
viction of  the  central  figure  as  to  the  unique 
relationship  which  he  bears  to  God.  To 
understand  the  boldness  of  his  claims  we  must 
study  his  words  and  acts  as  they  show  him 
to  have  known  himself : 

1.  Master  of  the  Past, 

2.  Master  of  the  Present,  and 

3.  Master  of  the  Future. 

I.  Master  of  the  Past.  The  thought  of  the 
Jews  from  the  time  of  the  exile  to  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era  was  taken  up  with  the  devel- 
opment of  two  ideals  —  the  Law  or  Torah 
and  the  Messiah.  The  one  constituted  the 
greatness  of  the  past  and  furnished  the  back- 
ground for  the  other,  which  was  the  hope  of 

27 


28    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST.  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

the  future.  They  were  conceptions  of  the 
greatest  sanctity.  The  one  had  its  founda- 
tion in  the  reality  of  history ;  the  other  its 
ideal  in  the  imagination  of  seers.  Together 
they  made  up  the  main  elements  of  the 
Jews'  belief  concerning  God's  revelation  to 
men. 

Into  such  conditions  of  thought  comes  the 
Master,  and  claims  to  "fulfill"  the  one  and  to 
"fill-full"  the  other.  He  dares  to  connect 
his  own  person  inseparably  with  both  of  these 
exalted  conceptions  —  an  act  which  for  sheer 
boldness  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  annals  of 
the  world's  great  religious  leaders.  It  shows 
the  consciousness  of  a  peculiar  relationship  to 
Deity  and  to  history. 

y,  A.  Consciousness  of  Fulfilling  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.  That  Jesus  considered  the  revelation 
given  in  the  Old  Testament  to  have  been 
completed  and  fulfilled  in  him  is  not  open  to 
doubt.  It  was  of  the  Messiah  that  Prophets 
had  prophesied  and  Psalmists  sung.  He 
gathered  up  in  himself  all  the  holiness  and 
spiritual  truth  and  power  that  the  sages 
and  leaders  of  the  past  had  possessed,  and  he 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  29 

knew  it.  He  was  conscious  that  in  his  person 
and  teachings  lay  the  meeting-point  between 
the  old  covenant  and  the  new.  When  he 
appeared  after  the  resurrection  we  are  told 
that  "beginning  at  Moses  and  all  the  prophets, 
he  expounded  unto  them  in  all  the  scriptures 
the  things  concerning  himself."  ^  We  find 
him  saying  "That  all  things  must  be  fulfilled, 
which  were  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,  and 
in  the  prophets,  and  iii  the  psalms,  concern- 
ing me."  ^  He  seems  to  have  maintained 
that  the  great  lawgiver  himself  had  him  — • 
as  Messiah  —  in  mind  in  his  legislation. 
"Had  ye  believed  Moses,  ye  would  have 
believed  me  :  for  he  wrote  of  me."  ^  Not 
only  Moses,  but  Isaiah,^  Malachi,^  Zechariah,® 
and  the  Psalms,^  were  among  the  writers  of 
the  Old  Testament  whose  words  the  Master 
thought  sealed  in  his  own  person.  The 
phrase,  "the  scriptures  must  be  fulfilled,"^ 
is  one  often  recurring  in  the  gospels,  not  only 

^  Luke  24 :  27.  2  Luke  24 :  44;    cf.  John  5  :  39. 

^  John  5:  46.  ^  Luke  4:  18,  21. 

5  Matt.  II :  10;   Luke  7  :  27. 

«  Matt.  26:  31;  John  12:  14,  15.  ^  Mark  14:49. 

*  Mark  14:49;  cf.  Matt.  5  :  17;   26:54. 


30    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

in  reference  to  general  conditions,  but  to  such 
specific  events  as  his  appearance  as  the 
Messiah^  and  his  being  "reckoned  among 
the  transgressors."  ^  The  boldness,  the  self- 
confidence  implied  by  its  application  by 
Jesus  to  himself,  can  be  grasped  only  when 
we  realize  that  the  books  now  composing 
the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  were  looked 
upon  by  many  in  strict  religious  circles  as 
let  down  from  Heaven  without  spot  or  flaw. 
Jesus  quoted  from  fourteen  of  them,  showing 
a  special  fondness  for  the  Psalms,  Isaiah, 
Hosea,  and  Deuteronomy  —  the  most  spiritual 
of  the  legal  books. 

B.  Consciousness  of  Superseding  the  Law. 
Not  only  did  Jesus  claim  to  fulfill  the  spiritual 
prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  believe 
that  the  Law  found  its  completion  in  him,  but 
his  divine  authority  was  so  supreme  that  he 
dared  to  set  up  his  own  teaching  on  certain 
points  in  a  supplementary  or  antithetical  re- 
lationship to  it.  If  we  can  understand  the 
exalted  conception  of  the  old  Canon  of  Scrip- 

^  Luke  4 :  18-21 ;   cf.  Isaiah  61  :  i,  2. 
'  Luke  22  :  37;  cf.  Isaiah  53  :  12. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  31 

ture  held  by  the  Jews  and  appreciate  the 
authoritative  character  of  the  interpretation 
it  had  received  at  the  hands  of  the  Scribes, 
and  if  then  we  read  over  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Matthew's  Gospel  with  its  oft-repeated  re- 
frain, "Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  by  them 
of  old  time.  .  .  .  But  I  say  unto  you,"  ^ 
we  may  perhaps  get  some  idea  of  how  com- 
pletely Jesus  was  conscious  of  supplementing 
and  in  a  measure  superseding  the  teaching  of 
Judaism.  He  was  specially  outspoken  in 
denouncing  the  teachings  of  the  Scribes  as 
totally  inadequate.  The  repeated  use  of  "I" 
—  the  so-called  Monarchical  Ego  —  in  con- 
trast with  sacred  authorities,  implies  that 
henceforth,  without  doing  away  with  the  great 
moral  foundations  of  The  Law,  a  living  person 
becomes  a  divine  substitute  for  a  dead  letter 
and  an  elaborate  ritual. 

It  is  a  matter  of  great  importance  in  the 
development  of  our  theme  that  we  should 
have  as  clear  an  idea  as  possible  of  Jesus' 
attitude  towards  Judaism  and  its  institu- 
tions —  for  here  was  a  system  believed  to  be 
1  Matt,  s :  21,  22,  28, 32,  34,  39,  44. 


32    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

of  peculiar  sanctity,  and  the  departures 
which  he  made  from  it  can  be  explained  only 
on  the  basis  of  his  consciousness  of  divine 
mission.  He  was  a  regular  attendant  at  the 
Synagogue,  worshiped  at  the  Temple,  felt 
keenly  the  need  of  retaining  its  purity  as  the 
house  of  God,  recognized  the  authority  of 
the  Mosaic  Law,^  and  urged  that  it  be  ob- 
served. In  these  and  other  ways,  especially 
by  his  emphasis  on  the  Old  Testament  scrip- 
tures, he  showed  that  he  was  a  loyal  Jew.^ 
But  he  was  opposed  to  the  casuistry  ^  of  the 
Scribes,  —  the  official  interpreters  of  the  Law, 
— denounced  their  extreme  ceremonialism,  and 
showed  both  by  words  and  acts  that  he  was  in 
favor  of  the  religion  of  the  spirit  rather  than 
that  of  the  letter.  In  certain  respects  he 
took  an  attitude  at  direct  variance  with  the 
constituted  authorities  of  the  church.  He 
ate  with  publicans  and  sinners,^  for  he  came 
"to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost."  ^ 

^  Matt.  23  :  1-3.  ^]ohnio:2S-  ^  Mark  2:  15. 

*  Matt.  9 :  10, 1 1 ;  Mark  2:15;  Luke  5  :  29. 

^  Luke  19 :  10;  cf.  Parables  of  Lost  Sheep,  Luke  15  :  3-7; 
Lost  Drachma,  Luke  15:8-10;  Lost  or  Prodigal  Son, 
Luke  15  :  11-32. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  33 

He  did  not  observe  the  Jewish  minutiae 
regarding  fasting,  his  breaches  In  this  respect 
being  so  great  that  the  people  exclaimed  that 
"the  disciples  of  John  and  of  the  Pharisees 
used  to  fast,"  ^  but  that  Jesus  "came  eating 
and  drinking"  ^  and  his  "disciples  fast  not."  ^ 
He  opposed  all  form  of  extreme  external 
ceremonialism  and  ostentation,^  especially 
In  such  matters  as  ablutions,^  where  thirty 
chapters  of  the  MIshna  were  given  to  rules 
on  the  single  subject  of  the  purification  of 
vessels.  He  tried  to  show  the  people  that 
it  was  their  words  and  deeds  which  evidenced 
whether  they  were  religious,  not  the  detailed 
observance^  of  the  regulations  regarding 
eating  and  drinking.  To  him  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  ceremonially  clean  and  un- 
clean no  longer  existed.  In  a  word,  although 
accepting  the  great  principles  of  the  Law  as 
divine,  he  opposed  interpretations  placed  on 
it  by  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  Insisted 
that  men  go  beneath  the  letter  to  the  spirit, 

*  Mark  2: 18.  ^  Matt.  11:19.  'Mark  2:18. 

''Matt.  6:  16-18.  ^  Mark  7:  1-23. 

^  Luke  11:38;   Mark  7:1-13. 

D 


34    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

for,  as  his  great  apostle  said,  "the  letter 
killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life."  ^  He  saw 
that  religion  must  emerge  from  legalism  and 
ceremonialism  into  a  deeply  spiritual  and 
ethical  atmosphere. 

Jesus  had  nothing  to  say  about  the  impor- 
tant Jewish  rite  of  circumcision,  but  Paul's 
interpretation  of  the  Christian  attitude 
towards  it  was  in  entire  accord  with  the 
general  tenor  of  Christ's  teaching.  It  was 
in  this  same  spirit  that  the  Master  inter- 
preted liberally  the  Jewish  laws  regarding 
divorce  ^  and  the  Sabbath.^  It  was  natural 
that  the  great  prophets  of  Israel  should  ap- 
peal to  him  so  powerfully.  His  references 
were  to  the  "  Law  and  the  Prophets,"  * 
rather  than  to  the  Law  alone.  It  is  true  that 
he  laid  emphasis  on  the  observance  of  the 
Law  and  stated  that  none  of  it  should  be 
destroyed  "till  all  be  fulfilled,"  ^  but  he 
seems  to  have  felt  increasingly  that  he  was 
its    fulfillment,    and    that,    consequently,    he 

1 II  Cor.  3:6.  2  Matt.  19 :  3-8 ;  Mark  lO :  2-9. 

^  Mark  2:  27-28;  Luke  6:1-11. 

*  Matt,  s  :  17-20;  cf.  Luke  16:17.  '  Matt.  5  :  18. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  35 

in  large  measure  supplanted  it.  This  was 
not  so  much  because  he  formally  abrogated 
it,  as  because  he  transcended  it.  The  tem- 
porary, restricted,  and  imperfect  in  it  fell 
by  its  own  weight  when  confronted  with  the 
eternal,  universal,  and  perfect  principle  of 
conduct  and  faith  manifested  by  Christ. 
This  was  the  "new  wine"  which  had  to  be 
put  into  "new  bottles,"  ^  and  which  no 
longer  made  necessary  that  accommodation  - 
to  the  old  legalism  which  was  required  in  the 
earlier  period  of  the  training  of  the  Jewish 
nation. 

This  general  attitude  towards  the  old  dis- 
pensation is  brought  out  by  his  references  to 
the  Temple.  He  was  loyal  to  it  as  the  his- 
torical center  of  worship  for  his  people,  but 
he  felt  released  from  absolute  obligation  to 
observe  certain  of  its  rites,  even  though  he 
might  deem  it  a  matter  of  wisdom  not 
to  disregard  them  entirely.^  He  believed 
that  the  Temple  would    be    destroyed,^  and 

1  Matt.  9:  16-17;  Mark  2:  21;  Luke  5  :  36-37. 

2  Mark  10 :  2-9.  ^  Matt.  17  :  24-27. 
*Matt.  24:  2;  cf.  Mark  15  :  29;  Acts  6:  14. 


36    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  ^HIMSELF 

that  in  the  new  and  more  spiritual  religion 
which  he  was  ushering  in,  men  could  worship 
God  anywhere.^  It  was  "mercy"  rather 
than  the  old  temple  sacrifice  for  which  he 
most  cared.^  He  went  so  far  as  to  say  "in 
this  place  is  one  greater  than  the  temple"  ^ 
—  a  characterization  which  is  apparently 
self-applied. 

All  of  these  facts  bear  striking  witness  to 
the  self-consciousness  of  Christ.  Think  of 
the  exalted  position  of  the  old  Law  —  the 
Torah,  and  of  the  authority  of  the  Scribes  as 
its  official  interpreters ;  and  then  turn  to  the 
young  prophet  of  Nazareth,  and  see  him  abro- 
gating some  parts,  supplementing  others,  and 
daring  to  interpret  old  truth  and  proclaim 
new  truth  with  supreme  confidence  and  au- 
thority !  In  so  far,  then,  as  his  attitude  to- 
ward the  Old  Testament  is  concerned,  he 
believes  himself  to  be  the  fulfillment  of  its 
highest  aspiration  and  prophecy,  and  conse- 
quently the  individual  whose  word  consti- 
tutes the  new  criterion  of  ethical  and  spiritual 
authority. 

1  John  4 :  20-24.  "  Matt.  12:7.  ^  Matt.  12  :  6. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  37 

C.  Consciousness  of  Being  the  Messiah. 
But  Jesus'  conception  of  his  relationship  to 
Old  Testament  thought  reaches  its  climax 
in  his  claim  to  be  the  Christ  or  Messiah. 
For  centuries  the  Jewish  people  had  been 
looking  forward  to  the  coming  in  Palestine 
of  a  Son  of  David  who  would  usher  in  the 
glorious  Messianic  kingdom.  This  dream  had 
started  in  times  of  national  distress,  and  had 
become  vivid  during  the  hard  period  of  the 
exile.  It  was  based  on  the  thought  that  the 
God  who  was  believed  to  have  made  a  special 
covenant  with  the  Israelites  would  not  allow 
his  chosen  people  to  live  permanently  under 
a  foreign  yoke,  or  in  obscurity,  but  would 
ultimately  restore  them  to  sovereignty  and 
power.  They  looked  back  to  the  wonderful 
reign  of  David,  and  looked  forward  to  its 
renewal  by  his  successors  under  even  more 
glorious  conditions.^  What  was  thus  orig- 
inally a  general  and  rather  indefinite  hope, 
becomes  more  and  more  definite  and  concrete, 
until  in  Isaiah  ^  a  single  righteous  and  power- 

*  Cf.  II  Samuel  7  :  8-^17 ;   Psalms  89 :  19-37. 
2  Isaiah  7 :  14-16;  9 :  6,  7,  etc. ;  cf.  Micah  4 :  5. 


38    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

ful  king  appears  in  prophecy  as  the  deliverer, 
bringing  peace,  and  compelling  obedience  to 
the  Holy  God  of  Israel.  In  the  two  centuries 
before  Christ,  during  the  difficult  period 
through  which  the  Jews  were  passing  politi- 
cally, the  Messianic  hope  was  revived  in  many 
apocalyptic  writings,  such  as  the  Songs  of 
Solomon  and  the  Book  of  Enoch,  in  which 
the  thought  of  the  coming  deliverer  was  made 
more  definite,  and  somewhat  idealized.  Yet 
among  the  masses  of  the  Jewish  people  in 
Palestine  at  the  beginning  of  our  era,  in  spite 
of  some  divergences  of  view,  the  Messianic 
kingdom  was  commonly  thought  of  as  a  great 
empire,  and  the  occupant  of  its  throne  as  a 
Jewish  king  of  imperial  presence  and  power  — 
a  worthy  successor  of  David  and  Solomon. 
Such  was  the  popular  notion,  and  the  prophets 
of  the  past  had  passages  which  helped  to  sup- 
port this  conception  of  royal  splendor  asso- 
ciated with  the  Messianic  ofiice. 

But  he  who  now  claimed  to  be  the  Messiah, 
although  reputed  to  be  of  the  seed  of  David, 
was  born  in  a  village  manger,^  worked  at  a 

^  Luke  2  :  7. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  39 

carpenter's  bench, ^  had  not  the  learning  of 
the  schools,^  lived  in  simplicity  if  not  pov- 
erty,^ associated  with  the  despised  and  the 
outcast,^  and  was  finally  crucified  between 
two  malefactors.^  And  yet  this  humble 
preacher  for  whom  the  ruling  classes  had 
only  contempt,  had  the  boldness  to  claim  to 
be  the  rightful  successor  to  the  throne  of  Da- 
vid, and  consequently  God's  special  represent- 
ative on  earth.  He  was  conscious — at  least 
after  the  baptism  —  that  he  was  the  Messiah, 
summing  up  in  himself  many  types  and  ideals 
of  Jewish  history  which  centered  about  this 
great  prophetic  and  apocalyptic  conception. 
His  acceptance  of  the  title  was,  humanly 
speaking,  a  difficult  but  necessary  step  to  take. 
It  was  not  an  adequate  ideal  for  the  spiritual 
and  universal  aspects  of  his  mission,  and  so 
it  is  perhaps  not  strange  that  the  Christian 
church  has  given  it  such  scanty  consideration. 
And  yet  without  it,  without  working  through, 
although  also  ultimately  beyond,  this  nation- 

^  Matt.  13:55;  Mark  6:  3.  ^joh^ytij. 

3  Matt.  8  :  20;   cf.  John  7 :  53  with  8:1. 

*  Matt.  9:10;   11:19;   21:32.  ^  Matt.  27:38. 


40    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

alistlc  conception,  he  could  not  have  accom- 
V  plished  his  world-wide  task.  He  had  to  take 
the  inherited  thought  of  the  Messiahship  as 
he  found  it,  then  broaden  it,  and  give  it  a 
more  profound  significance. 

There  are  six  important  instances  recorded 
in  the  gospels  of  Jesus'  accepting  Messianic 
tributes  or  performing  Messianic  acts.  They 
have  to  do  with  the  Confession  at  Csesarea 
.*.,  Philippi,  the  Anointing,  the  Triumphal  Entry 
into  Jerusalem,  the  Cleansing  of  the  Temple, 
and  the  trials  before  the  High  Priest  and 
Pilate.  These  events  all  came  relatively  late 
in  his  life,  mostly  in  the  last  week.  He  did 
not  dare  announce  himself  as  the  Messiah  at 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry,  fearing  that  the 
people,  with  their  materialistic  and  nation- 
alistic views  of  the  office,  might  not  grasp 
its  spiritual  significance. 

The  first  incident  is  connected  with  Peter's 
famous  confession  of  Jesus'  Messiahship.^ 
It  is  important  not  only  for  his  praise  of  the 
disciple  for  recognizing  him  as  "the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  Living  God,"  but  because  he 

^  Matt.  i6:  13-20;  Mark  8:  27-30;  Luke  9: 18-21. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  41 

made  the  discerning  Peter,  or,  perhaps,  his  con- 
fession, the  "rock"  on  which  he  built  his 
church.  The  mere  asking  by  Jesus  of  the 
question  "Whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son  of 
man  am  ?"  is  significant.  It  carries  its  own 
answer,  as  far  as  his  own  consciousness  is  con- 
cerned, but  when  Peter  frankly  acknowledges 
him  as  the  Christ,  the  recognition  is  so  exact, 
and  so  remarkable,  considering  the  unex- 
pectedly humble  character  of  the  Messiah's 
life,  that  Jesus  traces  the  knowledge  to  the 
inspiration  of  God.  The  revelation  vouch- 
safed to  Peter  corresponded  to  the  Master's 
own  conviction. 

The  anointing  by  Mary  of  Bethany  was 
also  significant.  The  precious  ointment  was 
poured  on  his  head  —  a  symbolic  act  based 
on  Old  Testament  precedents  for  kings  and 
prophets.  Jesus  did  not  object ;  on  the  con- 
trary he  approved,  and,  in  spite  of  the  op- 
position of  the  people  who  thought  the  act 
represented  a  large  waste  of  money,  replied 
"ye  have  the  poor  with  you  always  .  .  .  but 
me  ye  have  not  always;"^  and  added  that 
^  Mark  14:3-9;  Matt.  26:  6-13. 


42    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

the  anointing  would  be  proclaimed  wherever 
the  Gospel  was  known.  This  event  must 
clearly  be  interpreted  as  a  recognition  by 
Jesus  of  his  Messiahship,  especially  when 
taken  in  connection  with  his  statement  at 
the  beginning  of  his  ministry  in  Nazareth. 
Then  he  accepted  Isaiah's  prophecy  as  "ful- 
filled" in  himself:  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anointed 
me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath 
sent  me  to  heal  the  brokenhearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovery  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that 
are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord."  1 

The  eleventh  chapter  of  Mark  gives  us  the 
best  picture  of  the  third  incident.  Christ 
is  approaching  the  sacred  city  shortly  before 
the  Passover.  Here  is  the  passage  describing 
what  Christendom,  with  remarkable  insight, 
has  always  called  the  "Triumphal  Entry." 
"And  they  brought  the  colt  to  Jesus,  and 
cast  their  garments  on  him ;  and  he  sat  upon 
him.  And  many  spread  their  garments  in 
^  Luke  4 :  17-21 ;  cf.  Isaiah  61 :  i. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  43 

the  way  :  and  others  cut  down  branches  off 
the  trees,  and  strawed  them  in  the  way. 
And  they  that  went  before,  and  they  that 
followed,  cried,  saying,  Hosanna  ;  Blessed  is 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  : 
Blessed  be  the  kingdom  of  our  father  David, 
that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  :  Ho- 
sanna in  the  highest."  ^  Such  were  the 
honors  paid,  and  Jesus  offered  no  rebuke. 
He  accepted  them  all,  as  they  were  probably 
meant,  as  a  tribute  to  his  rights  of  kingship. 
In  fact  he  was  so  sensible  that  the  plaudits 
and  marks  of  respect  of  the  crowd  were 
proper  that  when  asked  to  rebuke  his  dis- 
ciples he  exclaimed  :  "I  tell  you  that,  if  these 
should  hold  their  peace,  the  stones  would 
immediately  cry  out."  ^  The  phrase  "in 
the  name  of  the  Lord,"  twice  repeated  in  the 
account,  is  worthy  of  note.  It  means  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  to  be  a  vicegerency  in 
which  the  Messiah  represents  Jehovah.  This 
shows  its  importance,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
emphasizes  the  significance  of  the  step  taken 

^  Mark  II :  7-1 1 ;   cf.  John  12  :  13-15. 
-  Luke  19 :  40. 


44    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

by  Jesus  in  accepting  this  tribute  of  the 
multitude. 

The  triumphal  entry  was  closely  followed 
by  Christ's  visit  to  the  Temple,  where,  as  the 
representative  of  Israel,  he  cleansed  it  of  its 
abuses.^  "Make  not  my  Father's  house  an 
house  of  merchandise"^  was  the  burden  of 
his  thought.  If  we  but  realize  how  strictly 
the  guardianship  of  the  Temple  was  kept  in 
the  hands  of  the  priestly  caste,  and  how,  as 
in  the  case  of  all  sacerdotal  classes,  any  out- 
side lay  interference  would  be  immediately 
resented  and  punished,  we  may  perhaps  get 
some  idea  of  the  feelings  of  Jesus  when  he 
performed  this  act.  It  cannot  easily  be 
explained  or  understood  on  any  hypothesis 
other  than  this  —  that  he  who  cleansed  the 
Temple  of  Israel  believed  himself  to  be  its 
rightful  guardian,  the  Anointed  of  God,  the 
Messiah. 

The  trial  before  the  high  priest  gives  the 
fourth  illustration.  Here  the  words  of  Jesus 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  his  claims.     The  oldest 

^  Matt.  21 :  12;   Mark  11 :  15,  16,  and  Luke  19:45. 
^  John  2  :  16. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  45 

of  the  records  could  not  be  more  specific. 
"Again  the  high  priest  asked  him,  and  said 
unto  him,  Art  thou  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the 
Blessed  ?  And  Jesus  said,  I  am :  and  ye 
shall  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  on  the  right 
hand  of  power,  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of 
heaven."  ^  The  definite  acceptance  by  Jesus 
of  the  title  "the  Christ"  and  its  equivalent 
"the  Son  of  the  Blessed,"  as  well  as  his  use 
of  the  well-known  Messianic  imagery  of  the 
time,  are  impressive.  That  those  present 
took  his  words  as  a  claim  of  Messiahship  is 
made  doubly  clear  by  the  statement  of  the 
high  priest  immediately  following,  showing 
that  he  thought  Jesus  guilty  of  "blasphemy." 

The  sixth  event  was  the  trial  before  Pilate. 
The  "Thou  sayest"  given  by  all  four  evan- 
gelists as  his  reply  to  the  governor's  question 
concerning  his  kingship,  is  now  generally  ad- 
mitted to  be  a  guarded  expression  of  assent. 
But  even  granted  that  another  interpretation 
is  possible,  the  fact  remains  that  at  a  supreme 
crisis  when  asked  categorically  by  the  highest 
resident   official   of  the   Roman   government 

^  Mark  14:61,  62;  cf.  Matt.  26:63,  64;  Luke  22  :  66-71. 


46    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

whether  he  was  king  of  the  Jews  or  no,  he 
refused  to  deny  his  claims.^  We  must  ac- 
cept the  straightforward  honesty  of  the  Mas- 
ter. This,  when  applied  to  the  interview 
with  Pilate,  seems  to  make  clear  his  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  Messiahship. 

There  is  an  earlier  event  than  any  of  those 
recorded  above  which,  although  less  specific, 
is  almost  as  significant.  It  is  the  answer  of 
Jesus  to  the  messengers  from  John  the  Bap- 
tist.^ It  was  too  early  in  his  ministry  for 
him  to  use  the  word  Messiah  as  applying  to 
himself,  but  in  reply  to  the  question  as  to 
whether  he  was  "he  that  should  come"  — 
i.e.  the  Christ,  he  referred  to  the  various  well- 
known  signs  of  Messianic  blessing,  which 
marked  his  work.  He  made  it  so  clear  that 
there  was  no  chance  for  misunderstanding 
his  real  meaning. 

In  John  we  are  given  two  other  instances. 
Jesus  tells  the  woman  of  Samaria  that  he  is 
the  long-looked-for  Christ,^  and  bears  similar 

^  Matt.  27  :  1 1 ;  Mark  15:2;  Luke  23  :  3  ;  John  18:37; 
cf.  constant  unrebuked  use  by  followers  of  Christ  of  term 
"son  of  David,"  Matt.  9 :  27,  etc. 

2  Matt.  1 1  :  3-6.  ^  John  4:  25,  26;   cf.  Luke  7  :  20-23. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  47 

testimony  to  the  Jews  in  the  Temple.^  So 
with  this  evidence,^  supplemented  by  his  warn- 
ings against  being  deceived  by  false  Christs,^ 
and  by  the  use  of  other  titles  such  as  "the 
Son  of  man"  discussed  later  (see  p.  79),  there 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  our  Lord  claimed  to 
be  the  Christ,  the  responsible  representative 
of  the  highest  power  and  love  of  God  on  earth. 
His  own  testimony  makes  it  easy  for  us  to 
understand  the  words  of  the  people  of  Sama- 
ria, "We  have  heard  him  ourselves,  and  know 
that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ,  the  Saviour 
of  the  world."  * 

2.  Master  of  the  Present.  We  turn  now 
from  Christ  as  the  Master  of  the  Past,  to 
Christ  as  the  Master  of  the  Present  Life. 
Our  object  here  is  to  show  his  conscious- 
ness of  a  unique  position  among  men.  This 
may  be  considered  under  the  following 
divisions : 

^  John  10:  24,  25. 

^  Cf.  Matt.  22  :  41-46.  Jesus*  statement  on  the  road  to 
Emmaus  is  also  to  the  point  for  those  who  accept  its  au- 
thenticity, Luke  24 :  25-27. 

*Matt.  24:  4,  5,  23,  24;   Mark  13  :  21,  22;  cf.  13  :  6. 

*  John  4:  41,  42. 


48    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

A.  Consciousness  of  Complete  Righteous- 
ness. 

B.  Consciousness  of  Absolute  Leadership. 

C.  Consciousness  of  Authority. 

D.  Consciousness  of  Founding  the  King- 
dom. 

E.  Consciousness  of  Mastery  of  Nature. 

F.  Consciousness  of  Revealing  God's  Char- 
acter. 

G.  Consciousness  of  Power  to  Forgive  Sins. 
H.  Consciousness  of  Unique  Sonship. 

A.  Consciousness  of  Complete  Righteousness. 
In  the  world's  history  there  has  been  but  one 
known  person  so  completely  consecrated  to 
God  that  he  was  apparently  conscious,  on 
reaching  early  manhood,  of  no  thought  or 
word  or  act  that  was  not  in  obedience  to  his 
Father's  will.  Jesus  Christ  knew  himself  to 
be  altogether  righteous,  because  he  was 
entirely  obedient,  completely  consecrated  to 
the  service  of  God.  At  the  threshold  of  his 
ministry,  when  John  hesitates  to  baptize 
him  into  the  formal  community  of  the  re- 
deemed, we  hear  the  Master  saying:  "Suffer 
it  to  be  so  now  :  for  thus  it  becometh  us  to 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  49 

fulfil  all  righteousness."  ^  And  from  that 
time  on  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  of 
his  feeling  that  he  was  not  accomplishing 
this  purpose ;  while  even  before  it  we  have 
the  beautiful  story  of  the  boy  Jesus  tarrying 
in  the  Temple  on  his  "Father's  business."'' 
He  lived  the  all-obedient  life  and  was 
conscious  of  it:  "the  Father  hath  not  left 
me  alone ;  for  I  do  always  those  things  that 
please  him."  ^  At  the  end  of  his  life,  real- 
izing that  neither  sins  of  commission  nor  of 
omission  can  be  laid  up  to  his  charge,  we  hear 
him  exclaiming:  "I  have  glorified  thee  on 
the  earth  :  I  have  finished  [the  Greek  word 
means  carried  through  completely]  the  work 
which  thou  gavest  me  to  do."  *  The  entire 
lack  of  any  consciousness  of  sin  is  impressive, 
especially  when  we  realize  how  exalted  his 
ideals  were,  and  when  we  remember  that  he 
denounced  sin  in  every  form,  calling  on  men 
to  repent. 

In  some  of  these  respects  he  differed  from 
the  Jewish  leaders  who  preceded  him,  such  as 

^  Matt.  3:15.  -  Luke  2  :  49. 

'John  8:  29.  *  John  17:4. 


50    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

David,  Isaiah,  Ezra,  and  the  writers  of  the 
Psalms,  as  well  as  from  the  greatest  Christians 
who  followed  him,  such  as  St.  Paul,  Augustine, 
and  Luther.  These  constantly  lamented 
their  sins  and  craved  forgiveness.  It  was 
not  so  with  Jesus.  He  knew  that  his  life 
had  no  waste  in  it,  no  break.  There  was  no 
hiatus  which  distinguished  the  purpose  of 
God  from  its  fulfillment  in  him.  The  most 
^delicate  conscience  the  world  has  known 
shows  nowhere  any  sign  of  repentance,  for 
he  had  committed  no  act  which  required  it. 
And  not  only  do  we  find  such  expressions  of 
satisfaction  with  the  life  which,  with  God's 
help,  he  has  lived,  but  in  one  place  at  least 
he  throws  down  the  challenge  to  any  one  to 
find  a  trace  of  sin  in  him.  He  alone  could 
say,  "Which  of  you  convinceth  me  of  sin  ?"  ^ 
for  he  alone  knew  himself  to  be  sinless, 
perfect.^  The  prince  of  darkness  had  no 
availing  power  over  him,^  for  Jesus  had  com- 
pletely overcome  the  world. ^ 

^  John  8  :  46;   cf,  15  :  22. 

2Luke6:40;   cf.  Matt.  19  :  21. 

*  Matt.  4:  10,  II ;  cf.  John  14 :  30.  *  John  16:33. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  51 

B.  Consciousness  of  Absolute  Leadership. 
And  it  is  because  of  this  perfect  righteousness 
that  he  has  become  what  he  claimed  to  be, 
our  leader,  our  ideal.  To  do  as  Jesus  did, 
or  as  he  would  do  in  our  circumstances,  be- 
comes the  goal  of  all  Christian  endeavor,  as 
he  himself,  knowing  the  uniqueness  of  his 
example,  taught  that  it  should  be.  The  short, 
categorical  summons,  "follow  me,"^  made  an 
earnest  disciple  of  Levi  the  Publican.  "Come 
ye  after  me"  ^  constituted  his  command  to 
Simon  and  Andrew.  "Come,  take  up  the 
cross,  and  follow  me"  ^  were  the  last  words 
addressed  to  the  rich  young  man  who  sought 
God's  kingdom.  "Whosoever  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his 
cross,  and  follow  me"  ^  is  the  oft-repeated 
statement  of  the  essence  of  the  gospel. 

There  is  no  thought  in  Jesus'  mind  of  a 
higher  level  of  character  and  life  than  he 
gives  us.  That  we  should  be  like  him  by 
walking  in  his  footsteps,  by  making  him  our 

1  Luke  5  :  27.  2  Mark  i  :  17. 

3  Mark  10:21;   Matt.  19  :  21 ;  cf.  Matt.  16 :  24. 
*  Mark  8  :  34. 


52    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

absolute  Lord,  is  his  frequently  expressed 
wish.  His  claim  of  mastery  is  so  far-reaching 
that  our  devotion  to  him  —  the  "captain  of 
our  salvation  "  —  transcends  in  importance  our 
obligations  to  our  nearest  kindred.  Should 
a  conflict  of  duties  arise,  it  is  the  latter  that 
must  yield,  —  our  love  for  Jesus  must  be  the 
supreme,  all-determining  thing. ^  We  have 
not  two  masters  to  follow,  "for  one  is  your 
Master,  even  Christ."  ^  He  demands  com- 
plete self-surrender,  entire  renunciation  of  the 
world,  of  those  who  would  follow  him.^  We 
must  love  as  he  loved, ^  no  more  is  possible. 
"It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he  be  as 
his  master,  and  the  servant  as  his  lord."  ^ 
In  a  word  he  is  conscious  of  being  the  rightful 
Lord  of  the  lives  of  men,  whose  leadership  is 
indisputable,  and  to  whom  devotion,  as  il- 
lustrated by  the  woman  with  the  box  of 
precious  ointment,^  should  be  unrestrained. 
Jesus'  conviction  of  his  divine  leadership 
is  also  shown  by  his  accepting  faith  in  his 

^  Matt.  10:37;   Luke  14:  26;  cf.  Luke  11 :  23. 

2 Matt.  23  :  8,  10;   cf.  26:18;  Mark  11:3;    14:14. 

^  Luke  14:33.      *  John  15:12;   13:34.      ^  Matt.  10:25. 

*Matt.  26:7-13;   Mark  14:3-10;  John  12:7,  8. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  53 

person  as  the  only  requisite  for  salvation 
(see  p.  82),  and  by  the  institution  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  the  great  Christian  service.  This 
was  intended  primarily  as  a  memorial  feast, 
—  one  that  should  keep  alive  among  men  the 
character  and  teachings  of  the  Master.  Had 
we  no  other  witness  to  Christ  than  the  exist- 
ence in  the  early  days  of  this  ceremony,  and 
the  preservation  both  in  Gospels  ^  and  Epis- 
tles ^  of  references  to  it,  we  might  well 
imagine  that  one  in  his  right  mind,  who 
commanded  this  ceremony  in  his  own  memory, 
must  have  been  conscious  of  a  leadership 
among  men  that  gave  him  a  relationship  of 
peculiar  oneness  with  God. 

C.  Consciousness  of  Authority.  That  Jesus 
spoke  "with  authority  and  not  as  the  scribes"^ 
is  generally  recognized.  His  message  was 
self-authenticating,  without  the  need  of  appeal 
to  "signs"  or  to  tradition.  His  method  of 
replying  to  those  questioning  his  position  is 
striking."*     He  was  conscious  of  the  absolute 

1  Matt.  26:26-28;   Mark  14:22-24;   Luke  22:  19,  20. 
2 1  Cor.  10:  16;   II :  24. 

2  Matt.  7 :  29 ;  Mark  1:22;  cf.  Luke  4:35,  36. 
*  Matt.  21 :  23  ;   cf.  Mark  1 1 :  27-33  ;  12:12. 


54    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

truth  of  his  positive  teachings  in  the  realm 
of  morals  and  religion.  This  stands  out 
most  clearly  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  but  its 
roots  are  in  the  Synoptics.  "Verily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  thee,  We  speak  that  we  do  know."  ^ 
He  knew,  there  was  not  the  shadow  of  doubt 
in  his  mind,  that  the  Father  had  given  him 
extraordinary  power,  ^  and  that  his  profound 
teaching  of  spiritual  principles  was  God's 
teaching.  Hear  also  the  certainty  with  which 
he  exclaims  "whosoever  heareth  these  say- 
ings of  mine,  and  doeth  them,  I  will  liken 
him  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house 
upon  a  rock, "  ^  and  "  If  a  man  keep  my  saying, 
he  shall  never  see  death."  ^  There  is  a 
ring  of  assurance  in  these  utterances.  "Ye 
call  me  Master  and  Lord,"  said  Christ, 
"and  ye  say  well ;  for  so  I  am."  ^  So  great 
is  his  realization  of  his  own  absoluteness 
that  he  demands  obedience  on  the  part  of 
his  followers.^     "Follow  me"^  is  the  oft-re- 

1  John  3:  ii;   cf.  8:38. 

2  Matt.  28 :  18 ;   cf,  John  13  :  3. 

5  Matt.  7:24.  *  John  8:51. 

^  John  13  :  13  ;   cf.  Luke  19  :  31. 

'Matt.  10:37.  ''Matt.  4:19;  S  :  22,  znd  passim. 


THE   DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  55 

peated  summons  In  all  the  gospels.  It  is  a 
command,  not  an  invitation,  and  it  comes 
from  one  who  could  say  with  assurance, 
even  according  to  one  of  the  Synoptics, 
*'A11  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of  my 
Father  :  and  no  man  knoweth  the  Son,  but 
the  Father."  ' 

It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the  expressed  faith 
of  others  in  him  brought  out  his  complete 
approval.  He  commended  the  centurion's 
faith  in  his  powers.^  He  healed  the  leper 
who  said,  "Lord,  if  thou  wilt,  thou  canst 
make  me  clean."  ^  In  at  least  one  Johan- 
nine  passage  he  is  quoted  as  laying  claim 
to  the  sole  mediatorship  between  God 
and  man  in  the  familiar  words,  "No  man 
cometh  unto  the  Father,  but  by  me."  ^  He 
is  also  sensible  of  his  authority  to  transfer 
miraculous  powers  to  others.^  He  believes 
himself  to  be  Lord  of  the   Sabbath/  and  of 

^  Matt.  II :  27. 

2  Matt.  8  :  5-13  ;   cf.  Luke  7 :  i-io.  ^  Matt.  8  :  2. 

*  John  14:6;   cf.  John  10:1;   Matt.  11:27. 
^  Luke  9:1;   cf.  Matt.  18:19;    cf.  also  his  consciousness 
of  power  to  forgive  sins  (see  p.  73). 
«  Mark  2:  28;  Matt.  12:8;  Luke  6:  5. 


56    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

greater  dignity  than  the  very  Temple  of 
Israel  itself.^  Yet,  conscious  of  his  supe- 
riority, he  refuses  to  submit  his  claims  to  the 
constituted  authorities  of  the  Jewish  church.^ 
He  knew  that  his  words  would  cause  division 
and  strife  even  in  the  same  family,^  but  that 
was  of  little  account  in  comparison  with  the 
acceptance  of  the  truth.  It  was  to  bear  wit- 
ness to  this  that  he  came  into  the  world,* 
and  his  frequent  assertion  of  the  truth  of  his 
message  and  person  ^  is  but  another  expres- 
sion of  his  consciousness  of  authority ;  while 
his  statement,  recorded  in  all  the  Synoptics, 
that  his  words  (the  non-acceptance  of  which 
would  incur  the  divine  disfavor  ^)  were  more 
enduring  than  the  very  heavens  and  earth  "^ 
—  even  when  figuratively  interpreted  —  im- 
plies the  highest  sense  of  their  eternal  abso- 
luteness. 

When  his  authority  was  challenged  as  by 

1  Matt.  12:6.  2  Mark  11 :  28-33. 

'  Luke  12:  51,  52.  *  John  18:37. 

^  John  8:14;  14:6;  cf.  John  8  :  45  ;  16:17;  Luke  19 :  27, 
etc. 

*  Mark  8:  38;  Luke  9 126;  cf.  Mark  10 :  32. 
^Matt.  24:35;  Mark  13  :  31 ;  Luke  21 :33. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  57 

John  the  Baptist,^  or  by  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,^  or  by  the  Sadducees,^  or  by  the 
Chief  Priests  and  Elders/  or  by  Herod,^ 
his  attitude  showed  that  he  would  not  discuss 
the  matter  —  his  message  and  his  deeds  of 
mercy  spoke  convincingly  for  themselves  — 
and  no  external  sign  would  help.^  And  yet 
at  least  once,  in  the  course  of  his  regular 
work,  he  gave  a  visible  example  of  his  author- 
itative mission  by  driving  the  buyers  and 
sellers  out  of  the  Temple  "^  —  an  astonishing 
act  for  a  layman  in  these  sacred  precincts. 
Such  words  and  actions  are  convincing  testi- 
mony of  his  consciousness  of  authority.^ 

D.  Consciousness  of  Founding  the  Kingdom. 
The  essence  of  Christ's  gospel  was  the 
preaching  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  This  is 
shown  by  the  emphasis  on  the  kingdom  in  his 
parables,  and  by  the  close  collocation  of 
*' gospel"  and  "kingdom"  in  many  of  his 
sayings.  In  Matthew  we  have  "  the  gospel 
of  the  kingdom  "  (4  :  23),  in  Mark  "  the  gospel 

*  Matt.  1 1  :  2-6.  *  Matt.  12  :  38-42. 

^  Matt.  16 :  1-4.        ^  Mark  II  :  27-33.        ^  Luke  23  :  8,  9. 
"Mark  8:  II,  12;  John  6:  30.  ^  Matt.  21 :  12,  13. 

'  See  also  below  in  discussion  of  Christ  as  Judge. 


58    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

of  the  kingdom  of  God  "  (i  :  14),  in  Luke  "  the 
glad  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  God"  (8  :  i). 
His  thought  of  the  kingdom  was  a  joyous  one, 
as  befits  the  surroundings  of  Galilee,  rather 
than  those  of  stern  Judea  —  and  his  illustra- 
tions of  it  were  largely  drawn  from  the  world 
of  nature  about  him. 

That  God's  kingdom  on  earth  was  In  the 
thought  of  Jesus  bound  up  with  his  own 
person.  Is  evidenced  by  all  the  gospels.  It 
has  been  already  implied  In  the  study  of  his 
consciousness  of  being  the  Messiah,  but  a 
few  other  facts  should  be  brought  out  here. 
Among  his  earliest  words  are  "the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand,"  ^  and  over  one  hun- 
dred times  later  we  find  him  quoted  as  re- 
ferring to  his  society  as  a  kingdom  of  which 
he  is  conscious  of  being  the  head.^  When 
we  remember  that  this  kingdom  is  to  be 
both  universal  and  eternal,  the  magnitude  of 
the  claim  Is  apparent.  It  Is  this  coming  of 
the  kingdom  which  the  Master  lays  down 
as  the  one  thing  his  apostles  are  to  preach.^ 

1  Matt.  4:17;  cf.  Mark  1:15;  Luke  4 :  44. 

2  Cf.  Matt.  25  :  34.  2  Matt.  10 :  7. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  59 

Identification  with  it  is  the  highest  of  this 
world's  privileges.^  Even  the  least  of  its 
members  is  greater  than  John  the  Baptist, 
than  whom  Jesus  said  that  history  had 
shown  no  greater  man.  If  we  study  the 
parables  of  the  kingdom  recorded  in  the 
thirteenth  chapter  of  Matthew,^  we  will  notice 
that  in  each  case  they  show  the  Master  sen- 
sible of  the  fact  that  the  creation  of  this  all- 
important  divine  society  was  his  own  work. 
Imagine  the  very  greatest  and  noblest  man 
of  our  time  making  the  coming  of  the  mil- 
lennium dependent  both  upon  the  acceptance 
of  him  and  of  his  teaching,  and  we  can  get 
some  idea  of  the  astonishing  character  of 
this  claim,  which  reaches  its  culmination  in 
the  King's  power  to  judge  the  world,  referred 
to  later.^ 

The  kingdom  of  God,  or  of  Heaven,  was 
to  Jesus  neither  exclusively  internal  nor 
external,  neither  exclusively  present  nor  fu- 
ture. It  was  essentially  the  spiritual  ideal 
which  he  created,  based  on  doing  the  will  of 

1  Matt.  II :  II.  2]viatt.  13  :  24,  31,  33,  44,  45,  47. 

'  See  p.  87. 


6o    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

God,  and  which  he  made  the  center  of  his 
preaching,  especially  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  in  the  Parables.  It  began  in  his 
own  religious  experience,  then  became  re- 
alized in  the  group  of  disciples,  while  little 
by  little,  like  "the  leaven"  and  "the  seed," 
it  was  to  spread  over  the  world.  It  was  also 
to  have  its  supreme  realization  in  a  future 
state,  but  this,  in  spite  of  vigorous  modern 
eschatologists,  was  not  its  fundamental  fea- 
ture. It  was,  therefore,  to  be  an  abiding 
religious  and  ethical  condition  of  mind,  re- 
sulting in  right  social  relations,  rather  than 
a  place  or  an  event.  It  had  to  do  with 
repentance,  and  faith  and  love  —  not  pri- 
marily with  loaves  and  fishes,  or  with  earthly 
power,  or  with  any  new  external  system.  In 
these  respects  the  Messianic  kingdom  estab- 
lished by  Jesus  differed  from  that  expected 
by  most  of  his  Jewish  contemporaries.  The 
mere  fact  that  he  proclaimed  such  a  kingdom, 
and  identified  himself  with  it,  throws  impor- 
tant light  on  his  divine  consciousness. 

E.  Consciousness    of   Mastery    of  Nature^s 
Laws.    From  a   study  of   Christ's   conscious 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  6 1 

power  over  men  to  his  conviction  of  mastery 
of  nature's  forces  is  a  natural  step  in  the 
development  of  our  subject.  We  touch  here 
on  a  matter  which  most  works  on  Christian 
Evidences  have  done  much  to  confuse.  For- 
tunately, however,  miracles  are  now  regarded 
as  the  object  rather  than  the  means  of  Apol- 
ogetics, and  we  are  beginning  to  see  that 
given  an  unparalleled  personality,  unique 
forms  of  expressing  divine  power  are  not 
necessarily  unnatural.  We  must  use  Christ 
to  explain  the  miraculous,  rather  than  vice 
versa.  The  modern  theory  of  the  unity  of 
nature  is  here  a  help,  for  the  "  miracles  "  of 
Jesus  can  be  explained  only  on  the  ground 
that  the  divine  spirit  permeates  man  and  the 
physical  world,  and  that  consequently  this 
spirit  of  God  possessed  by  Jesus  could  enter 
sympathetically  into  the  potentialities  of 
both.  It  was  because  of  our  Lord's  wonder- 
ful power  of  penetrating  the  secrets  of  nature 
and  making  them  his  own  that  he  could 
work  understandingly  and  effectively  through 
her  varied  manifestations  and  possibilities. 
To  him  the  world  of  nature  and  the   world 


62    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

of  Spirit  were  bound  together  by  an  insepar- 
able divine  kinship.  God  was  behind  both, 
and  in  both. 

The  authenticity  of  some  of  the  gospel 
miracles,^  at  least  in  their  present  form,  is 
open  to  question,  but  to  cut  out  all  evidences 
of  the  miraculous  (so-called)  from  the  ac- 
counts of  Christ's  life  is  well-nigh  impossible. 
There  is  hardly  a  page  that  does  not  bear  its 
witness  to  his  supernormal  power.  Here  two 
forms  of  dogmatism  are  to  be  avoided  —  that 
of  the  conservative  student  who  accepts  as  an 
exact  statement  of  fact  every  miracle  recorded 
in  the  Bible,  without  investigation,  and  that 
of  the  radical  who  assumes  that  whatever 
runs  contrary  to  our  own  experience  must 
necessarily  be  legendary.  But  our  subject  de- 
mands that  we  deal  not  with  the  miracles,  as 
such,  but  with  the  testimony  they  bear  to 
Jesus'  realization  of  his  relationship  to  God. 

We  shall  take  up  first  the  miracles  of  heal- 
ing. With  many  of  these  even  the  most 
critical  spirit  has  little  difficulty.  Modern 
science  has  done  much  to  prove  the  possible 

1  E.g.  Matt.  2:9;  Luke  8  :  33. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  6^ 

influence  of  one  mind  over  another.  So  it 
is  only  necessary  to  think  of  the  one  whom  we 
call  the  Master  as  conscious  of  possessing  a 
dominant  will  to  understand  those  miracles 
of  which  nervous  or  weak-willed  persons  were 
the  subjects.  The  woman  who  had  a  spirit 
of  infirmity  eighteen  years, ^  the  man  sick 
with  the  palsy  (paralysis),^  Simon's  wife's 
mother,^  the  child  with  the  unclean  spirit,* 
the  man  with  the  deaf  and  dumb  spirit,^ 
the  afflicted  Gadarene,^  and  many  others,^ 
overpowered  by  his  strong  mind,  were  cured 
through  faith  in  his  powers,  which  he,  through 
the  conscious  possession  of  them,  had  helped 
to  render  objective.  The  fact  is  that  Jesus 
"  stirred  the  forces  of  the  inner  life "  so 
mightily  that  they  reacted  effectively  and  im- 
pressively upon  the  bodily  life.  This  is  es- 
pecially true  in  the  case  of  various  nervous 
disorders,  such  as  delirium  (Mark  5  :  2-20), 
catalepsy  (Matthew  12  :  22),  and  epilepsy 
(Mark  9  :  17-29).     Even  the  cure  of  those  who 

'  Luke  13  :  II,  12.  2  Mark  2  :  10-12. 

8  Luke  4:  38,  39;  cf.  John  4:  50.  *  Luke  9:  42. 

'  Mark  9  :  25,  26.  «  Luke  8  :  32-35. 
'Mark  5:34;  6:  56,  etc. 


64    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

thought  themselves  blind  may  be  similarly- 
explained  if  we  but  grasp  the  power  of  faith 
—  the  great  essential  proclaimed  by  Jesus, 
and  the  authoritative  character  of  his  per- 
sonality. There  seem  to  have  been  some  who, 
hampered  by  the  effects  of  disease  and  dirt, 
had  never  seen,  but  who  had  faith  in  the 
deep,  genuine  ring  of  his  commands,  and 
succeeded,  with  his  effective  help,  in  forcing 
their  eyes  open  at  his  bidding.  So  it  may 
have  been  with  Bartimeus,^  and  with  the 
blind  men  of  Bethsaida  ^  and  of  Jericho.^ 

But  when  we  pass  from  such  cures,  which 
have  at  least  a  possible  explanation  in  the 
realized  power  of  one  will  over  another,  and 
may  therefore  be  classed  as  psychological,  to 
those  miracles  which  imply  actual  changes 
in  the  body  itself  —  changes  which  are  im- 
mediate, and  apparently  beyond  the  influence 
of  the  most  strenuous  exertion  of  the  mind — 
we  are  carried  into  a  field  of  great  difficulty. 
It  behooves  us  therefore  to  be  modest  and 
not  too  sure  of  our  conclusions,  especially 
in  an  age  when  science  seems  to  be  proving 

^  Mark  10:51,  52.        2  j^gj-k  8 :  22.        ^  Luke  18:  41,  42. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  65 

the  unity  of  nature,  and  when,  on  the  other 
hand,  psychology  and  psychical  research  are 
making  us  reaHze  the  extraordinary  range  of 
power  latent  in  the  human  spirit.  We  see 
Jesus  sensible  of  being  able  to  transform  a 
withered  into  a  whole  hand,^  and  curing 
instantaneously  a  woman  with  an  Issue  of 
blood.^  We  hear  him  saying  to  the  leper 
"I  will;  be  thou  clean,"  ^  and  we  are  told 
that  the  whitish  scales  disappeared  at  his 
word.*  We  see  the  blood  pouring  from  the 
side  of  the  high  priest's  servant's  head,  when 
suddenly  the  wound  is  healed  by  a  touch 
from  the  finger  of  Christ  and  a  word  of  as- 
surance.^ 

But  even  this  is  not  all.  The  Fourth  Gos- 
pel gives  us  the  story  of  the  raising  of  Laz- 
arus ^  from  the  dead.  It  is  a  stupendous 
miracle  —  and,  if  true,  the  mere  attempt  to 
fathom  the  conviction  of  divine  power  be- 
hind it  is  staggering.  It  does  not  entirely 
do  away  with  the  difficulty  to  explain  it  on 

1  Luke  6  :  10.  2  Luke  8  :  46,  48. 

'Matt.  8:2,  3;  cf.  Luke  5:  13;    17:11,19. 
^*  Mark  1:42.  'Luke  22:  51.  « John  11 :  43,  44. 


66    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

the  basis  of  its  identification  with  the  latest 
of  the  gospels  alone.  St.  Luke's  account  of 
Jesus'  life  contains  two  similar  incidents. 
We  can  hear  the  words  as  the  Saviour  stood 
over  the  bier  of  the  widow's  son  at  Nain, 
"Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  arise,"  ^ 
and  those  similar  ones  recorded  in  all  the 
Synoptics  when  Jairus'  daughter  was  raised  ^ 
—  "maid,  arise"  —  and  we  cannot  escape  the 
conviction  that  he  who  gave  these  com- 
mands realized  the  power  he  possessed.  Such 
accounts  in  several  different  narratives  bear 
telling  witness  to  Christ's  consciousness  of 
power.^ 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  only  miracle 
recorded  by  all  the  evangelists  is  the  feeding 
of  the  multitude,^  one  which  brings  forward 
prominently  Christ's  mastery  of  the  laws  of 

^  Luke  7 :  14,  15.  '  Luke  8  :  54. 

'The  tribute  money  in  the  fish's  mouth  (Matt.  17:27), 
the  passing  of  Christ  through  the  crowd  (Luke  4:30),  and 
the  draught  of  fishes  (John  21 :  1-14)  are  not  considered  above. 
The  last  two  named  easily  yield  to  a  naturalistic  interpreta- 
tion, while  we  are  not  told  that  the  tribute  money  (Matt. 
17:  27)  was  obtained  in  the  miraculous  way  predicted. 

*Matt.  14:18;  cf.  15:32-38;  Mark6:4i;  Luke9:i6, 
17;  John  6:  II. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  67 

nature.  Here  is  a  marvelous  "sign,"  and 
one  for  which  the  historical  evidence  is  so 
strong  that  it  cannot  be  lightly  dismissed. 
Let  us  put  ourselves  back  in  the  scene.  There 
are  some  five  thousand  people  before  him, 
weary  and  hungry.  They  must  be  fed,  yet 
there  are  but  five  loaves  and  two  small  fishes 
to  form  the  common  meal.  It  is  a  rare  op- 
portunity for  Jesus  to  relieve  want.  He  has 
no  thought  of  failure.  He  knows  that  the 
necessary  food  will  be  provided.  If  he  did 
not  fully  realize  that  after  prayer  to  the 
Father  his  power  would  in  some  way  be  vin- 
dicated, his  attempt  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  multitude  would  be  unintelligible.  Any 
one,  sincere  and  in  his  right  mind,  who  at- 
tempted such  a  task  must  be  conscious  of 
the  mighty  works  of  which  he  was  capable. 
We  must  notice  also  the  confident  way  in 
which  the  Christ  of  John's  Gospel  set  to  work 
to  increase  the  supply  of  the  wedding  wine,^ 
the  tone  of  authority  in  which  all  the  Synop- 
tics ^  give    his    rebuke  to  the  stormy  wind, 

^  John  2  :  7. 

2  Matt.  8:26;  Mark  4  139;   Luke  8  :  24. 


68    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

which  obeyed  his  "Peace,  be  still,"  ^  and  the 
cursing  of  the  barren  fig  tree.^  These  words, 
and  others  like  them,^  implying  an  effective 
mastery  of  the  laws  of  the  natural  world, 
find  their  counterpart  in  the  story  of  Christ's 
walking  on  the  sea,^  and  seem  to  show  that 
he  believed  himself  the  possessor  of  forces 
and  influences  which  have  not  been  claimed 
by  other  men  of  normal  minds.  No  wonder 
that  the  disciples  were  astonished,  and  ex- 
claimed, "What  manner  of  man  is  this,  that 
even  the  wind  and  the  sea  obey  him  ?"  ^ 

It  throws  some  light  on  Jesus'  view  of 
miracles  to  note  that  to  him  they  were  not 
"prodigies"  or  "wonders,"  as  they  are  to  so 
many  ignorant  people.  He  uses  the  Greek 
equivalent  of  this  conception  but  once  *  and 
then  with  disapproval.  To  him  miracles 
were  sometimes  powers  (Bvvdjxei^),  some- 
times signs  (arjjjLeia),  but  generally  merely 
works  (epya)  —  deeds  of  kindness  and  of 
love.     They    were    spontaneous,    restrained, 

^  Mark  4:  39.  -Mark  11:14.  •'' Luke  10 :  19. 

*  Mark  6 148;  John  6  tig.  »  Mark  4 :  39-41. 

"  John  4  :  48  (jepaTo). 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  69 

dignified,  helpful  deeds  done  with  a  moral 
object  —  as  different  as  possible  from  many 
of  the  ethically  meaningless  and  spectacular 
wonders  which  discredit  the  Apocryphal  Gos- 
pels. He  believed  them  to  be  the  result  of 
God's  power  working  through  him,  and  if 
the  Master's  own  view  of  his  incarnation  is 
grasped  they  can  be  understood.  It  was 
"with  the  finger  of  God,"  ^  or  "by  the  Spirit 
of  God,"  ^  or  "by  prayer"  ^  that  he  was  able 
to  do  his  "miracles."  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  considered  them  violations  of  natural 
law;  the  poor  modern  word  "supernatural" 
is  not  even  a  New  Testament  conception  — 
rather  were  they  manifestations  of  the  use,  or 
direction,  of  latent  forces,  by  man  who  is  cre- 
ated in  the  image  of  God,  and  who  conse- 
quently, if  he  draws  upon  his  power,  has  a 
potential  key  to  unlocking  the  secrets  of  a 
universe  that  is  all  one  and  all  divine. 

Miracles  then,  by  the  confidence  which 
precedes  the  act,  rather  than  by  the  act  it- 
self, and  by  the  complete  understanding  and 

*  Luke  11:  20.  2  Matt.  12:  28. 

•  Matt.  17 :  21  (Revised  Version). 


70    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

mastery  of  Nature's  laws  which  they  reveal, 
bear  testimony  to  Jesus'  consciousness  of  his 
close  relationship  to  Deity.  Yet  we  must 
remember  that  they  never  involve  absolute 
creation,  a  power  which  we  are  not  told  that 
Jesus  Christ  inherently  possessed ;  and  that 
he  definitely  stated  that  believers  in  him  — 
that  is  those  who  understood  and  cultivated 
his  secret  of  power  —  might  do  even  greater 
works.  ^ 

F.  Consciousness  of  Revealing  God's  Char- 
acter. We  pass  now  to  the  deeper  expres- 
sions of  our  Lord  in  regard  to  his  relation- 
ship to  Deity,  and  shall  consider  first  his 
consciousness  of  revealing  God's  character, 
Jesus  came  to  make  known  to  men  the  true 
nature  of  the  one  eternal  God  as  a  loving 
Father,  holy  and  near  at  hand.  He  lived  in 
his  presence  and  spirit,  being,  as  the  unknown 
author  of  Hebrews  so  beautifully  expresses  it, 
the  "express  image"  of  the  Father's  person.^ 
Such  phrases   as  the  following  occur  in  all 

'  John  14:  12. 

^  Heb.  1:3;  cf.  the  post-resurrection  statement  in  Matt. 
2S:i8. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  71 

the  Gospels  :  "All  things  are  delivered  unto 
me  of  my  Father";^  "He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father";^  "Whosoever 
shall  receive  me,  recelveth  not  me,  but  him 
that  sent  me";^  "no  man  knoweth  who 
the  Son  Is,  but  the  Father ;  and  who  the 
Father  Is,  but  the  Son,  and  he  to  whom  the 
Son  will  reveal  him^^;^  "As  the  Father 
knoweth  me,  even  so  know  I  the  Father."  ^ 
Of  these  five  quotations,  four  are  from  the 
Synoptics,  although  all  emphasize  that  note 
of  divine  exaltation  generally  associated 
with  the  Fourth  Gospel.  It  Is  clear  from 
these  sayings  that  Jesus  put  forward  the 
claim  ^  to  a  peculiarly  Intimate  knowledge  of 
his  Father  In  Heaven,  and  preached  that  the 
acceptance  of  him  and  of  his  message  was 

1  Matt.  11:27.  2  John  14:  8,  9;  cf.  12:45. 

'Mark  9:  37;   Matt.  10:40;   cf.  John  5  :  23  ;   3:13. 

*  Luke  10 :  22 ;   Matt.  1 1  :  27 ;   cf.  John  8:19. 

'John  10:  15. 

^  Sometimes  the  language  he  is  made  to  use  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  seems  almost  to  identify  him  with  Deity,  e.g.  "I  and 
my  Father  are  one."  John  10:30;  cf.  also  John  8:15, 
16;  10:38;  17:  II,  etc.  The  Christ  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
also  claims  preexistence;  cf.  John  8:  58;  17:  5,  24;  but  this 
finds  no  parallel  in  the  Synoptics. 


72    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

the  equivalent  of  the  acceptance  of  God. 
Such  words  could  not  have  been  used  by  one 
who  was  not  conscious  of  a  perfect  under- 
standing of  the  character  of  the  Eternal. 
In  fact  the  fatherhood  of  God  seems  to  have 
been  the  only  subject  on  which  he  claimed 
complete  and  unique  knowledge.  This  is 
not  surprising,  as  his  message,  his  gospel, 
his  glad  tidings,  can  be  reduced  in  essence  to 
this  —  the  God  revealed  by  Jesus  is  a  loving 
Father.  The  reconciliation  of  some  Johan- 
nine  passages  expressing  the  unity  between 
Father  and  Son  in  a  metaphysical  as  well  as 
an  ethical  form,  especially  those  in  the  much 
questioned  "  High  Priestly  Prayer  "  of  John 
17,  with  the  general  tenor  of  the  earlier  gos- 
pels, and  with  many  of  the  statements  of  the 
Fourth  Evangelist  himself,  is  left  for  the 
moment.  Suffice  it  now  to  have  brought  to- 
gether the  most  important  words  assigned  to 
Jesus  regarding  his  intimate  knowledge  of 
God,  and  his  power  to  reveal  his  character 
authoritatively.^  It  is  difficult  to  escape  from 
the  conviction  that  he  of  whom  such  words 
^  See  also  p.  75  fF. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  73 

were  early  recorded  must  have  given  expres- 
sion to  thoughts  about  himself  and  his  rela- 
tionship to  God  implying  such  exaltation  as  to 
have  made  him,  in  his  own  eyes,  the  embodi- 
ment in  human  form  of  the  Eternal  Spirit. 
Without  some  such  objective  basis  the  de- 
velopment of  Johannine  and  Pauline  Christ- 
ology  is  an  inexplicable  mystery. 

G.  Consciousness  of  Power  to  Forgive  Sins. 
There  is  one  aspect  in  which  all  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  represent  Jesus  that  substantiates 
this  view  and  makes  the  transition  to  the 
theology  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  less  abrupt. 
It  is  his  claim  of  power  to  forgive  sins  — 
which,  in  essence,  means  the  transference  of 
ability  to  break  off  evil  habits,  and  to  realize 
the  divine  life  —  the  "peace  of  God  which 
passeth  all  understanding."  That  "the  Son 
of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins"  ^ 
—  to  restore  a  repentant  man  to  right  re- 
lations to  God  —  is  a  claim  made  in  the 
early  part  of  the  Saviour's  ministry,  and 
accredited  by  a  divine  act.  The  most  beau- 
tiful example  of  his  forgiveness  is  connected 
^  Matt.  9 :  6,  7  i  Mark  2:5;  Luke  5  :  20,  24. 


74    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

with  a  woman  —  Mary  of  Bethany.  She 
had  lived  a  bad  life  and  was  now  a  penitent 
sinner,  so  penitent  in  fact  and  so  anxious  to 
show  her  better  resolve  for  the  future  by 
acts  of  kindness,  that  Jesus  Christ,  as  the 
accredited  messenger  of  God,  forgave  her 
sins.  Twice  is  this  forgiveness  declared  in 
terms  of  authority.  First,  to  Simon,  in  the 
words,  "Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee.  Her  sins, 
which  are  many,  are  forgiven,"  ^  and  again 
to  the  woman  herself,  "he  said  unto  her, 
Thy  sins  are  forgiven."  ^  That  this  power 
was  consciously  inherent  in  Jesus  himself 
because  of  his  spiritual  oneness  with  God, 
and  that  it  was  not  merely  declarative  on 
the  part  of  another,  seems  to  be  shown  by 
his  words  in  instituting  the  Lord's  Supper, 
"this  is  my  blood  of  the  new  testament, 
which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of 
sins,"  ^  and  by  his  attitude  when  the  Jews, 
having  charged  him  with  blasphemy  for 
pronouncing  pardon  upon  the  paralytic  — 
an  event  recorded  in  all  the  Synoptics  — 
exclaim,  "Who  can  forgive  sins  but  God 
»  Luke  7 :  47.  *  Luke  7 :  48.  » Matt.  26 :  28. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  75 

only?"^  Far  from  denying  his  own  in- 
trinsic rights  in  the  performance  of  this  di- 
vine act,  he  deliberately  asserts  his  privilege 
by  curing  him  whose  sins  he  had  declared 
forgiven.  The  transference  of  this  power  to 
the  Apostles^  is  a  transference  in  appear- 
ance only.  It  is  forgiveness  declared  with 
authority  as  possible  only  through  faith  in 
Christ,  who  gave  his  life  "a  ransom  for 
many."  ' 

H.  Consciousness  of  Unique  Sons  hip.  But 
it  is  in  his  own  self-characterizations  that 
the  consciousness  of  his  divine  mission 
is  the  most  apparent.  This  is  especially 
noteworthy  if  we  accept  the  historicity  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel.  Here  Jesus  calls  himself 
the  "bread  of  life,"  *  "the  bread  of  God,"  ^ 
and  tells  us  that  those  who  make  him  their 
spiritual  food  shall  live  forever.  He  is  "the 
door,"  ^  by  which  "if  any  man  enter  in  he 
shall    be  saved."     He  is  the  "Hght  of   the 

^  Matt.  9:6;   Mark  2:7;   Luke  5:  21. 

*  John  20:  23;  cf.  Matt.  16:  19;    18:18. 

*  Mark  10 :  45 ;  Matt.  20  :  28. 

*  John  6:  35,  48.  *  John  6 133;  cf.  6:31. 

*  John  10 :  9. 


76    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

world,"  ^  "the  good  shepherd,"^  "the  way, 
the  truth,  and  the  life."  ^  Such  self-desig- 
nations are  not  confined  to  the  last  of  the 
gospels,  for  in  the  Synoptics  he  calls  himself 
"the  sower,"  ^  "the  bridegroom,"^  "the 
rock, "  ^  the  corner  stone  of  redeemed  hu- 
manity ''  —  statements  that  are  fully  as  sig- 
nificant as  their  Johannine  equivalents.  They 
are  without  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
world's  great  men.  Here  is  one  who  is  re- 
ported to  have  called  himself  by  names  that 
carry  with  them  no  knowledge  of  sin,  no 
imperfection,  and  who  claims  to  be  the  one 
who  alone  can  satisfy  the  spiritual  cravings 
of  man.  His  person  is  so  exalted  that  to 
follow  him,  ^  or  to  have  faith  ^  in  him,  is  the 
all-important  test. 

These  self-characterizations  lead  up  to  four 
titles  adopted  by  Jesus   which   imply   reali- 

1  John  9  .-5.  'John  10:  II. 

•John  14:6;  cf.  John  II :  25.      *  Luke  8  :  5,  11. 

^Markziig;  Luke  5:  35. 

«  Luke  6 :  47,  48 ;  cf.  Matt.  7 :  24 ;  16 :  18. 

^  Luke  20:  17. 

^  Matt.  8:22;  Mark  i :  27  and  passim. 

'  John  1 1 :  25  and  passim  in  Fourth  Gospel. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  77 

zation  of  his  unique  Sonship.  They  are  "the 
Son,"  "the  Son  of  God,"  "the  Son  of  man," 
and  "the  Messiah"  or  "the  Christ."  All 
but  the  second  are  used  so  frequently  by  the 
Synoptists  as  to  call  for  special  attention. 
The    last    has    already    been    discussed    (see 

P-  37)- 

Whenever  Jesus  calls  himself  "  the  Son  "  ^  it 

is  in  connection,^  either  by  way  of  contrast 
or  cooperation,  with  the  Father.  An  impres- 
sive instance  recorded  in  Matthew  and  Luke 
is  that  where  he  states  that  knowledge  of  the 
Father  is  confined  to  the  Son  "and  he  to 
whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  him.^''  ^ 
We  are  all  sons  of  God,  but  he  calls  himself 
not  merely  a  son,  but  the  son.  Just  as  there 
are  many  fathers  but  only  one  who  is  to  all 
men  "the  Father,"  so  there  is  but  one  son 
who  is  "the  Son"  to  mankind.  Christ  in 
thus  naming  himself  asserts  that  he  bears  an 
essential  relationship  to  Deity,  a  conclusion 
that  is  borne  out  by  his  frequent  use  of  the 

1  Matt.  11:27;  21:37;  28:19;  Mark  13:32;  Luke  10: 
22;  John  5  :  19,  20,  21,  23,  26;  8:36;   17:1. 

^  John  8  :  36  is  an  exception  to  the  letter  of  this  statement. 
'Matt.  11:27;   Luke  10:22. 


78    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

phrase  "My  Father,"  ^  the  personal  pronoun 
implying  intimate  connection  between  the 
two.  But  there  is  nothing  in  this  simple  title 
that  is  essentially  and  necessarily  Messianic. 

The  second  title,  the  use  of  which  is  re- 
corded less  frequently,  adds  little  to  our 
knowledge  of  Jesus'  thought  about  himself. 
It  is  really  but  the  complete  expression  of 
the  idea  clearly  implied  in  the  first.  We 
find  it  se\4eral  times  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  ^ 
and  once  in  the  Synoptics,  ^  but  there  are 
other  occasions  when  Christ  was  addressed 
as  "the  Son  of  God"  and  accepted  the  title 
without  rebuke.^  It  is  a  tacit  assertion  of  the 
fact  that  in  him  God  has  become  incarnate 
—  the  chosen  representative  of  the  chosen 
people.  The  title  is  unquestionably  Messi- 
anic in  character,  but  not  necessarily  exclu- 
sively so.     Israel  was  God's  son,^  so  were  its 

»Matt.7:2i;  15:13;  16:17;  25:34;  26:29,39;  and 
passim  in  all  gospels. 

2  John  5  :  25;  9:  35,  37;  10:  36;  11:4.  Used  by  others  of 
Christ;  Matt.  27:54;  Mark  1:1;  John  1:35-40;  6:69; 
11:34;    17:7;   20:31;  and  Luke  I  :  35. 

'Matt.  27:43.  ^  Matt.  14:33;  Mark  3:  11,  12. 

*  Exodus  4 :  22  fF. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  79 

kings  ^  —  and  naturally,  therefore,  the  chosen 
people's  Messiah  might  bear  the  same  title. 
A  metaphysical  relationship  to  Deity  is  neither 
excluded  nor  demanded  by  it,  but  Jesus  has 
become  God's  special  ambassador  ^  to  a 
needy  world.  Such  an  office  cannot  be 
shared ;  it  must  from  its  very  nature  be 
unique.^  This  thought  is  also  brought  out  in 
the  parable  of  the  Vineyard.*  The  absent 
husbandman's  servants  have  been  maltreated 
and  killed  as,  one  after  another,  they  have  been 
sent  to  secure  the  fruits  of  the  distant  estate. 
Then,  as  a  last  resort,  the  owner  sends  his  only 
son,  but  he  too  is  killed.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  as  to  Jesus'  meaning.  The  husband- 
man is  God  the  Father,  and  his  "one  son  the 
well-beloved"  is  no  other  than  he  himself. 
The    third    title,    "the    Son   of   man"^  — 

1  Psalms  86 :  16.  '  Cf.  Eph.  6 :  20;   II  Cor.  5  :  20. 

'Christ  was  called  "Son  of  God"  by  centurion,  Matt. 
27:54;  by  disciples,  Matt.  14:33;  by  fourth  evangelist, 
John  20:  31 ;  by  Baptist,  John  I  :  34;  by  Nathaniel,  John  I  : 
49;  by  Peter,  John  6:69;  by  Martha,  John  11:27;  by 
Jews  (quoting  Jesus),  John  19  :  7. 

^Marki2:i-9;  Matt.  21:37;   Luke  20:  13. 

^Matt.  8:20;  Mark  14:41;  Luke  9:56;  John  12:23 
and  passim. 


8o    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

discussed  in  scores  of  learned  treatises  —  is 
in  some  ways  the  most  suggestive  of  all.  The 
Synoptics  give  us  sixty-nine  instances  ^  in 
which  Jesus  so  called  himself.  It  is  evident 
that  it  was  his  favorite  self-designation,  al- 
though Stephen  is  the  only  one  of  his  early 
followers  who  is  known  to  have  used  it  ^  of 
him. /The  title  as  used  by  Christ  can  only 
be  understood  in  connection  with  the  great 
prophecy  in  the  book  of  Daniel,  when  the 
Messiah  coming  on  the  clouds  of  Heaven  is 
described  as  "one  like  the  [a]  son  of  man."  ^ 
The  image  of  this  passage  took  firm  hold 
upon  the  imagination  of  the  Jews,  as  we 
know  from  several  sources,  and  especially 
from  the  Book  of  Enoch,  which  appeared  in 
the  century  before  the  Christian  era.  It 
became  firmly  fixed  in  the  popular  imagi- 
nation as  a  Messianic  title,  and  Jesus'  use  of 
it  was  so  understood.  It  had  the  advantage 
of  being  long  associated  with  the  glorious 
ushering  in  of  the  eternal  kingdom,  and  yet  of 
associating  the  Messiah  with  the  human  race. 

^Matthew,  30;  Mark,  14;  Luke,  25. 

2  Acts  7 :  56.  ^  Daniel  7:13. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  8 1 

This  figure  of  the  Son  man  has  the  effect  of 
taking  the  Messiahship  out  of  its  exclusively 
Davidic  ^  and  nationalistic  environment,  and 
giving  it  a  more  divine  and  more  universal 
significance.  As  the  failure  of  Jesus'  plans 
for  a  world  transformation  in  his  life-time  be- 
came more  and  more  apparent,  he  seems  to 
have  seized  more  tenaciously  upon  the  won- 
derful vision  of  the  Son  of  man  coming  on  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  and  to  have  thought  of  it  as 
referring  to  his  own  return  in  glory. ^  This 
frequently  gives  a  note  of  divine  triumph  to 
his  use  of  this  symbolic  title,  without  ever 
disassociating  it  entirely  from  humanity  and 
the  earth  on  which  we  live. 

3.  Master  of  the  Future.  It  has  been  shown 
by  reference  to  the  gospels  that  Jesus  knew 
himself  to  be  (first)  the  Fulfiller  of  the 
ideals  of  the  Past ;  and  (second)  the  Com- 
plete Master  of  the  Present  Life.  It  is  neces- 
sary now  to  take  up  briefly  (third),  Christ 
as  the  Master  of  the  Future. 

^  The  difficult  passage  Mark  12:35-37  is  believed  by 
many  scholars  to  be  a  denial  of  the  idea  that  the  Messiah 
must  necessarily  be  the  descendant  or  successor  of  David. 

2  Matt.  16 :  27,  etc. 
e 


82    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

His    knowledge   of   his    relation    to    man's 
future  may  be  discussed  under  six  heads : 

A.  Consciousness  of  Determining  Salvation. 

B.  Consciousness  of  Decreeing  Judgment. 

C.  Consciousness  of  Universal  Mission. 

D.  Consciousness  of  Suffering  for  the  Sins 
of  Humanity. 

E.  Consciousness  of   Foreknowing,  Resur- 
rection. 

F.  Consciousness  of  Returning  to  Influence 
the  World. 

With    all    of    these    beliefs,    purposes    and 
acts  Jesus  claims  to  be  vitally  connected. 

A.  Consciousness  of  Determining  Salvation. 
The  New  Testament  doctrine  of  Salvation 
starts  with  faith  in  the  person  of  Christ.  It 
is  not  belief  in  dogmas  about  God  or  about 
Christ  —  it  is  trust,  faith  in  the  living  person 
of  the  Master  himself.  The  idea  expressed  by 
"faith"  and  by  the  old  English  word  "fide," 
rather  than  by  the  too  exclusively  intellectual 
act  identified  with  "belief"  and  "believe,"  is 
most  characteristic.  The  message  of  Jesus  is 
"  Come  unto  me,  .  .  .  and  I  will  give  you  rest,"  ^ 
^Matt.  11:28. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  83 

both  present  and  future.  Salvation  is  phys- 
ical, through  cures ;  spiritual,  through  a 
repentant  and  renewed  soul  life ;  and  eternal, 
through  faith  which  masters  death  —  and  in 
each  case  it  is  brought  about  by  Christ.  He 
is  the  Great  Physician  who  saves  man  from 
suffering  by  many  wonderful  cures, ^  but 
these  are  merely  a  means  to  an  end  —  the 
fitting  of  men  for  a  higher  sin-free  life,  the 
saving  of  their  moral  and  spiritual  natures. 
This  was  the  great  purpose  of  Jesus'  coming 
into  the  world.  He  came  "to  seek  and  to 
save  that  which  was  lost,"  ^  or,  as  the  Fourth 
Gospel  puts  it,  that  we  "should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life."  ^  His  very  pres- 
ence was,  in  his  judgment,  enough  to  bring 
safety  to  a  ship's  company  in  a  storm,*  and 
salvation  to  a  household,^  while  faith  in  him 
sufficed  to  save  both  a  sinful  woman  ^  and  the 
centurion's  servant.'^  The  Greek  word  for 
"save"  occurs  54  times  in  the  gospels,  in  over 
one  third  of  the  cases  with   a  religious   sig- 

^  Mark  5:34.  ^  Luke  19 :  10.  '  John  3  :  16. 

*  Matt.  8  :  26.  *  Luke  19:9.  *  Luke  7  :  50. 

^  Matt.  8 :  5-10. 


84    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

nificance.  That  Jesus  used  It  so  frequently 
in  the  way  he  did,  with  reference  both  to  the 
Father  in  whom  he  urged  men  to  trust  im- 
plicitly,^ and  to  himself  —  and  in  both  cases 
in  connection  with  eternal  life  —  is  evidence 
of  his  conviction  that  he  and  his  message 
held  an  important  relationship  to  man's 
future. 

Here  Is  a  man  among  men  telling  them  that 
their  spiritual  condition  is  dependent  upon 
implicit  confidence  in  him  and  his  teachings. 
This  is  specially  emphasized  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  If  men  will  follow  him  salvation 
will  begin  here  below,  for  eternal  life  is  de- 
pendent only  upon  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
Christ,  and  it  is  decreed  by  the  Master  him- 
self.^ It  is  a  remarkable  claim  —  that  of  a 
despised  carpenter's  son,  making  Heaven 
and  Hell  depend  upon  degree  of  relationship 
to  him.  Whether  these  terms  were  used  by 
Jesus  to  refer  to  anything  more  than  radically 
different  states  of  mind,  matters  little.  The 
"keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  were 
claimed  by  him  according  to  well-attested 
» Matt.  6:25-34.  2  John  17.3.   10:28. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  85 

Synoptic  tradition,^  which  also  records  his 
saying  that  his  life  was  given  as  "a  ransom 
for  many,"^  as  well  as  the  wonderful  words  — 
as  impressive  as  anything  in  John  —  restricting 
the  true  knowledge  of  the  Heavenly  Father  to 
Christ  "and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will 
reveal  him.^^  ^  He  believed  himself  identi- 
fied with  man's  future  happiness  or  the  op- 
posite. It  was  he,  the  Son  of  man,  who 
"shall  gather  together  his  elect  from  the 
four  winds."*  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
you.  He  that  believeth  on  me  hath  everlasting 
life,"  ^  "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  He 
that  heareth  my  word,  and  believeth  on  him 
that  sent  me,  hath  everlasting  life  .  .  .  The 
hour  is  coming,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead 
shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God  : 
and  they  that  hear  shall  live."  ^  With 
these  expressions  and  many  others,^  Jesus 
makes  salvation  depend  on  relationship  to 
him. 

An  interesting  collection  of  passages  of  this 

*  Matt.  16:19;  18:18.  *  Matt.  20:28. 

•  Matt.  1 1 :  27.  *  Matt.  24 :  3 1 ;  cf.  Luke  13  :  29. 
•John  6:  47;  cf.  4:14.  '  John  5  :  24-25 ;  cf.  11:25. 
^  Luke  18:42;  7:50;  cf.  John  3  :  15-18;  6:  40. 


86    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

character  Is  that  in  which  rewards  are  based 
on  deeds  done  "for  my  name's  sake"  ^  or 
"for  my  sake,"  phrases  that  are  of  frequent 
occurrence  in  the  Synoptics,  and  imply  a 
representative  relation  of  Christ  to  humanity's 
future.  A  typical  passage,  similar  in  import 
to  the  Johannine  passages  quoted  above,  is 
found  in  Luke  :  "for  whosoever  will  lose  his 
life  for  my  sake,  the  same  shall  save  it."  ^ 
Another  equally  characteristic  saying,  show- 
ing his  consciousness  of  determining  salvation 
in  a  very  impressive  way,  is  in  Matthew : 
"every  one  that  hath  forsaken  houses,  or 
brethren,  or  sisters,  or  father,  or  mother,  or 
wife,  or  children,  or  lands,  for  my  name's 
sake,  shall  receive  an  hundredfold,  and  shall 
inherit  everlasting  life."  ^  It  would  have 
been  difficult  for  Jesus  to  have  chosen  words 
that  indicated  more  clearly  his  conviction 
that  eternal  life  for  the  individual  was  bound 
up  with  his  person  and  mission. 

^  Mark  13  :  13,  etc. 

2  Luke  9:24;  cf.  Matt.  5:11;  Luke  6:20;  21:17; 
Mark  9:  41.  "In  my  name"  has  the  same  thought;  cf.  also 
**  in  remembrance  of  me,"  I  Cor.  11 :  24-25. 

'Matt.  19:  29. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  87 

B.  Consciousness  of  Decreeing  Judgment. 
There  are  passages  in  all  the  gospels  in  which 
Jesus  asserts  that  he  is  to  be  the  judge  on  the 
great  day  of  judgment.  We  need  not  think 
of  this  day  as  the  same  for  all  men,  but  as 
the  test  occurring  for  each  man  after  death. 
In  a  way  Jesus  thought  of  this  as  repeated 
by  God  after  every  act  of  a  man's  life,  but 
not  to  the  exclusion  of  a  great  judgment 
by  which  the  general  stamp  of  a  man's  char- 
acter on  earth  is  summed  up  in  one  decision. 
We  do  not  state  that  upon  this  decision  rests 
unalterably  the  whole  of  a  man's  future,  for 
Jesus  believed  that  growth  into  the  likeness  of  *|» 
God  is  a  gradual  and  eternal  process ;  but 
upon  the  earthly  life  summed  up  for  man  in 
his  judgment  day,  depends  his  power  of  ap- 
preciating God,  and  hence  the  determina- 
tion of  whether  the  future  life  is  to  be  a  heaven 
or  a  hell  for  him.  Matthew  gives  us  Jesus' 
words  :  "When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in 
his  glory,  and  all  the  holy  angels  with  him, 
then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory  : 
And  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations  : 
and   he   shall   separate   them   one   from   an- 


88    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

Other,  as  a  shepherd  divideth  his  sheep  from 
the  goats."  ^  In  Mark  we  have:  "Whoso- 
ever therefore  shall  be  ashamed  of  me  and 
of  my  words  in  this  adulterous  and  sinful 
generation ;  of  him  also  shall  the  Son  of  man 
be  ashamed,  when  he  cometh  in  the  glory  of 
his  Father  with  the  holy  angels."  ^  In  Luke, 
Christ  as  the  Judge  apportions  kingdoms  over 
which  his  faithful  apostles  are  to  rule  in  the 
future  world,^  and  the  basis  of  judgment  is 
acceptance  or  rejection  of  his  person :  ^  while 
the  Christ  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  tells  us  that 
"the  Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  hath  com- 
mitted all  judgment  unto  the  Son."  ^ 

So  the  most  significant  fact  regarding 
judgment  in  the  gospels  is  that  it  is  con- 
nected with  Christ  :  "he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it";^  "Whosoever 
shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  shall  the 
Son  of  man  also  confess  before  the  angels  of 

1  Matt.  25:31,  32;  cf.  7:20-23;  10:32;  25:34;  19:28; 
25:21;  16:27. 

*  Mark  8:  38.  '  Luke  22  :  19,  30;   cf.  21  :  36. 

*Luke  12  :  8,  9. 

'John  5:  22;    12:48;    5:26,27;   cf.  14:2. 

»  Matt.  10  :  39. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  89 

God."  ^  The  picture  of  the  Son  of  man  as 
the  great  judge  is  particularly  emphasized 
in  Matthew's  Gospel,  where  he  is  pictured  In 
apocalyptic  language  as  sending  out  his 
angels  as  the  reapers  to  divide  the  wheat  from 
the  tares,^  and  the  sheep  from  the  goats.' 

Christ  is  Judge,  and  similarly  he  Is  the 
test,  the  criterion  of  judgment.  Failure  to 
appreciate  him,^  or  to  put  In  practice  his 
teachings,^  or  to  believe  In  him,"  or  to  ac- 
cept his  invitation,^  carries  with  it  his  severe 
condemnation.  So  did  being  ashamed  of 
him  ^  and  rejecting  his  disciples,^  while  on 
the  contrary  the  woman  who  was  a  sinner 
received  forgiveness  of  sins  because  of  the 
special  kindness  ^°  she  showed  to  Jesus. 
There  is  no  clearer  evidence  of  his  remarkable 
self-consciousness  than  this  conviction,  which 
stands  out  in  all  the  gospels,  that  he  was 
called  upon  to  judge  the  world.  This  was 
thought  of  as  a  natural  result  of  his  Messiah- 

^  Luke  12:8.  2  Matt.  13  :  24-30,  37-43. 

'  Matt.  25  :  32-33.  *  Matt.  11 :  21-22. 

'  Matt.  7 :  26-28.  *  John  3:36.  ^  Matt.  22 :  i-io. 

"Mark  8:  38.  »  Luke  10: 10-14;  cf.  Matt.  10:  14. 
"  Luke  8 :  47. 


90    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

ship,   and  was    specially  associated  with    his 
second  coming.^ 

C.  Consciousness  of  Universal  Mission. 
Jesus'  consciousness  of  his  mastery  of  the 
future  is  also  evidenced  by  his  belief  that 
his  message  was  universal  in  scope.  In  this 
connection  his  attitude  towards  the  Gentiles 
is  important  as  showing  the  breadth  of  his 
mission,  in  contrast  with  the  exclusive  Jew- 
ish ideal  of  his  day.  He  was  as  willing  to 
help  the  Roman  centurion,^  the  Syro-Phoeni- 
cian  woman,^  and  the  Samaritan,*  as  he  was 
any  Israelite.  It  was  the  leaders  of  his  own 
exclusive  people  —  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees —  that  appear  throughout  the  gospels 
as  meriting  his  most  severe  rebukes.  So  it 
is  not  surprising  that  the  Jewish  inhabitants 
of  Nazareth  put  him  out  of  the  synagogue 
for  emphasizing  cases  where  Gentiles  had 
been  blessed  by  the  activities  of  Jewish 
prophets.^  And  when  driven  from  his  home 
city  he  took  up  his  abode  in  "Galilee  of  the 
Gentiles,"  ^    and    later    visited    the    despised 

1  See  p.  97.  2  Lu^e  7.2-10;  Matt.  8  :  5-13. 

^  Mark  7:  26.  *  Luke  17  :  11-19.  ^  Luke  4 :  25-30. 

^Matt.  4:  15. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  91 

Samaritans,^  Decapolis,^  and  other  Gentile 
communities.  The  Baptist  proved  himself 
a  good  prophet  when  he  proclaimed  that 
Jesus  was  to  be  "a  light  to  lighten  the  Gen- 
tiles." 2 

His  parables,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  are  universal  in  their 
implied  scope,  a  fact  whose  significance  as 
it  affects  our  subject  can  only  be  fully  appreci- 
ated when  considered  in  the  light  of  the 
nationalistic  and  particularistic  character  of 
contemporary  Judaism.  In  some  cases  this 
universality  is  definitely  claimed.  For  in- 
stance, his  teachings  are  for  "all  nations,"* 
not  for  the  Jews  only,  for  "  many  shall  come 
from  the  east  and  west,  and  shall  sit  down 
with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  ^  —  a  verse  whose 
context  shows  conclusively  its  reference  to 
the  Gentiles.  His  message  is  not  merely 
for  Palestine,  but  it  is  to  be  "preached 
throughout  the  whole  world,"  ^    and    it  was 

^  John  4:  40.  2  Mat-t,  4 .  25,  3Lu],e2:32. 

*  Mark  13  :  10;  Luke  24  :  47. 

*  Matt.  8  :  II ;  cf.  13  :  22  ;  John  12  :  32.  ^  Mark  14  :  9. 


92    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

because  of  God's  love  for  all  humanity 
that  he  was  sent.*  No  one  in  his  sound 
mind  could  make  such  claims  without  know- 
ing, that  his  was  the  authoritative  religious 
message,  and  that  he  was  the  absolute  teacher 
of  the  things  of  the  soul.  His  convictions  on 
this  point  are  the  more  remarkable  because 
the  Jews  were  looking  for  a  Messiah  to  exalt 
primarily  their  own  race  —  not  for  one  whose 
direct  appeal  was  to  humanity  at  large.  It  Is 
clear  that  Jesus  felt  that  his  first  mission  was 
to  his  own  people,  whose  Messiah  he  was, 
but  it  is  equally  clear  that  all  mankind  was 
included  in  his  vision  and  in  his  sense  of 
ultimate  divine  responsibility.  This  univer- 
sality of  his  consciousness  is  shown  in  his 
last  recorded  command  to  the  disciples  to 
"teach  all  nations"  ^  and  to  be  witnesses  unto 
him  to  "the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  ' 
He  was  conscious  of  being  the  determining 
factor  both  in  immediate  and  ultimate  sal- 
vation not  for  the  Jews  only  but  for  the 
world. 

D,    Consciousness  of  Suffering  for  the  Sins 
*  John  3  :  i6,  17.  '  Matt.  28 :  19.  *  Acts  i :  8. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  93 

of  Humanity.  That  "the  Son  of  man  must 
suffer  many  things"  ^  "and  be  rejected  of  this 
generation"'  was  one  of  the  convictions  of 
Jesus,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  such 
ideas  were  repellent  to  contemporary  Judaism. 
He  was  even  aware  that  one  of  the  inner  band 
of  disciples  was  to  prove  the  traitor,^  handing 
him  over  "to  be  crucified"  because  "he  was 
reckoned  among  the  transgressors."  *  The 
thought  of  the  suffering  Messiah  of  Isaiah 
had  impressed  itself  upon  his  mind,  and  he 
could  not  escape  the  conclusion  that  he  was  to 
"be  rejected  of  the  elders  and  chief  priests 
and  scribes,  and  be  slain,  and  be  raised  the 
third  day."  ^  He  had  a  hard  time  ahead  and 
he  knew  it,  and  yet  he  faced  his  fate  serenely  : 
"I  have  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with;  and 
how  am  I  straitened  till  it  be  accomplished  !"  ^ 
Jesus  even  had  a  clear  intuition  that  Jeru- 
salem,^ the  sacred  city,  was  to  be  the  scene  of 
these  pregnant  and  tragic  events,  and  that 
among  them  were  to  be  included  his  mocking, 

^  Luke  9:  22;   cf.  Mark  9:  12;   Matt.  17:  12;  etc. 
'Luke  17:25.  'Mark  14:  18;   Matt.  26 :  23  ;  etc. 

*  Luke  22:  37.  *  Luke  9:  22.  "Luke  12:  50. 

^  Matt.  16:21;   20:18;   Mark  10:33;   Luke  18:31. 


94    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

scourging,  and  other  humiliating  details  ^ 
which  actually  occurred.  This  is  all  part  of 
the  earliest  records,  and  its  great  signifi- 
cance is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  events  pre- 
dicted by  Jesus  were  so  much  at  variance  with 
the  dominant  world-conquering  Messianic  ex- 
pectations of  the  time.  These  paid  little  at- 
tention to  a  humble  and  suffering  Messiah 
until  a  generation  after  the  death  of  Jesus, 
when  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  made  it 
seem  right  to  think  of  a  deliverer  who  could 
share  the  sad  experiences  of  his  people.  The 
fact  that  Jesus  could  see  back  of  contem- 
porary thought  to  the  higher  ideal  of  "  the 
suffering  servant "  of  God,  and  forward  to 
its  extraordinary  realization  in  him,  speaks 
volumes  for  his  consciousness  of  a  unique 
mission.  His  predictions  of  what  actually 
happened  are  impressive  testimony  to  his 
conviction  that  his  death  was  connected 
both  with  the  past  of  Israel  by  prophecy, 
and  with  the  future  of  humanity  by  act, 
for  he  knew  that  it  was  only  by  the  path 
of  the  Cross  that  salvation  could  come 
*  Mark  lo:  33,  34;   Matt.  20:19;   Luke  18  :  32,  33. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  95 

to  man  ^  through  "the  remission  of  sins." 
He  believed  that  his  blood  was  shed  and  his 
body  given  on  Calvary  for  the  sake  of  man- 
kind.^ And  although  there  is  no  evidence 
that  he  even  dreamed  of  modern  substitu- 
tionary doctrines  of  the  Atonement,  yet  the 
basis  on  which  they  were  built  up  is  found 
in  a  well-attested  and  self-revealing  saying 
recorded  by  the  earliest  evangelist,  "the  Son 
of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister,  and  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many."  ^  To  predict  a  dying  Messiah,  suffer- 
ing voluntarily,  and  not  so  much  with,  as  for 
his  people,  required  at  the  time  the  confidence 
of  divine  inspiration. 

E.  Consciousness  of  Foreknozving  Resur- 
rection. It  is  perhaps  possible  to  see  how 
Jesus,  merely  from  a  study  of  historical  con- 
ditions, might  have  predicted  his  violent  death 
at  the  hands  of  the  authorities.  But  when  we 
consider  his  prophecies  in  regard  to  his  rising 
from  the  dead,  we  seem  to  leave  the  field  of 

^  Matt.  26:28;   cf.  Mark  14:  24;   Luke  12  132. 
2  I  Cor.  II  :  24;    Luke  22  :  20,  etc, 
2  Mark  10 :  45 ;  Matt.  20 :  28. 


96    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

the  natural  for  that  of  the  supernatural. 
No  amount  of  merely  human  calculation  of 
chances  or  probabilities  could  have  led  Jesus  to 
predict  an  event,  which,  leaving  out  those 
miracles  of  which  he  was  himself  the  cause, 
was  in  the  form  it  took,  or  at  least  in  the  assur- 
ance it  carried  to  others,  without  parallel  or 
precedent.  Even  if  the  well-known  words 
"Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days  I  will 
raise  it  up  "  ^  are  not  to  be  taken  as  an  historical 
prophecy,  yet  we  find  the  resurrection  pre- 
dicted in  the  early  part  of  the  Galilean  minis- 
try,^ and  at  Caesarea  Philippi  just  after  Peter's 
confession,^  and  again  on  the  way  down  from 
the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.'*  It  is  re- 
peated as  the  little  band  starts  for  Jerusalem,^ 
and  on  the  night  of  the  Last  Supper  *  it  is 
heard  again.  The  references  are  so  frequent, 
even  in  the  oldest  record,  and  seem  so  natural 
in  their  present  setting,  that  to  rule  them  out 
entirely  as  later  additions  seems  almost  im- 
possible within  the  canons  of  sound  criticism. 

'John  2:  19.  *  Matt.  12:40;   cf.  17:22. 

'Mark  8:  31;   Matt.  16:21.  *  Mark  9: 9. 

'Luke  18:32;   Matt.  26:32. 
•Matt.  26:32;   Mark  14:28. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  97 

In  making  this  statement  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Jesus'  confidence  that  he  should 
"rise  again"  is  almost  equally  impressive 
whether  considered  as  a  prophecy  of  a  bodily, 
or  of  a  purely  spiritual  resurrection,  pro- 
vided the  latter  was  so  real  and  vital  that  the 
fact  of  continued  existence  was  brought 
home  convincingly  to  the  disciples  on  the 
third  day.  Each  gospel  and  each  stage  of 
the  gospel  history  bears  the  same  testimony 
to  the  belief  of  Jesus  that  God  would  raise 
him  from  the  dead.  His  conviction  that  he 
would  be  justified  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
as  the  Messiah  through  the  knowledge  that 
his  spirit  had  overcome  death,  is  evidence  that 
he  felt  his  relation  to  the  Eternal  to  be  of 
such  a  character  as  to  make  his  person  unique. 
This  is  another  link  in  the  proof  that  he  be- 
lieved his  future  to  be  bound  up  in  some  vital 
way  with  the  future  of  humanity. 

F.  Consciousness  of  Returning  to  Influence 
the  World.  That  Jesus  believed  that  his 
contact  with  humanity  would  outlast  the 
grave  is  indubitable ;  and  we  would  be  un- 
true to  his  convictions  if  we  thought  of  this 


H 


98    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

influence  as  merely  that  of  the  memory  of 
his  life  and  character.  It  was  far  more  direct 
and  more  truly  vital.  In  the  Synoptic 
Gospels  ^  we  have  predominantly  the  picture 
(in  Jesus'  own  thought)  of  his  immediate  ^ 
and  sudden  second  coming  "on  the  clouds  of 
heaven"  —  the  so-called  Parousia  —  and  the 
setting  up  of  the  all-powerful  eternal  kingdom 
in  which  he  was  to  be  the  great  judge.  In 
the  Fourth  Gospel  we  have  the  thought  of  the 
gradual  spiritual  coming  of  Jesus  to  every 
believer  in  and  through  the  Holy  Spirit.^ 
Both  views  go  back  to  the  Master  himself, 
although  the  latter  was  further  developed 
by  disciples  of  devout  mind  and  philosophi- 
cal interests  to  help  explain  the  failure  of 
Jesus  to  appear  suddenly,  as  predicted,  in 
his  Messianic  glory.  In  other  words  Jesus 
seems  to  have  believed  in  his  own  objective 
second  coming  and  in  the  formal  setting  up  of 

^  Mark  13  :  26, 27;    14:62;   Mztt.24passim;Luke2i :  27; 
etc. 

2  Matt.  10:23;   Mark  9:1;    13:30.      In     other    places 
Jesus  shows  less  certainty  as  to  the  immediateness  of  his  re- 
turn; cf.  Matt.  24:  36;  Mark  13  :  32. 
John  14:26;   15:26;   i6: 13,  14,  etc. 


3 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  99 

the  Messianic  kingdom  —  but  not  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  his  gradual  spiritual  coming  to  his 
disciples  after  his  death,  as  some  "consistent 
eschatologists"  try  to  make  out.  Perhaps 
the  thought  of  the  second  appearance  in  glory 
—  in  accordance  with  the  original  Messianic 
expectation  of  the  Jews  —  was  almost  a  neces- 
sity for  Jesus  if  he  was  to  satisfy  himself  and 
his  disciples  that  he,  in  his  humility,  a  "suffer- 
ing servant,"  was  indeed  the  Messiah.  When 
he  referred  to  the  "coming  of  the  Son  of 
man"  he  had  in  mind,  beyond  question,  the 
great  prophecies  of  the  Book  of  Daniel,^  and 
thought  that  this  coming  would  usher  in  a  new 
divine  world-order.  These  references  have 
so  much  of  the  local  apocalyptic  coloring  and 
imagery  in  them  that  it  is  difficult  to  deter- 
mine their  exact  meaning.  They  have  to  be 
dealt  with  more  as  poetry  than  as  prose,  even 
though  Jesus  himself  may  have  conceived  of 
them  rather  literally.  But  it  is  evident  that 
the  essential  fact  involved  is  the  continuing 
and  increasing  of  the  influence  of  Jesus  through 
his  entering  vitally  into  the  experience  of  the 
^  Daniel  7:  13. 


lOO    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

individual  and  of  the  world  even  after  his  death 
in  Palestine.  This  is  classically  expressed  by 
words  attributed  to  Christ  in  the  last  verse 
of  Matthew's  Gospel,^  which  imply  his  abid- 
ing spiritual  presence  in  a  way  similar  to  that 
so  often  indicated  in  John  xiv  to  xvi.  The 
mere  fact  that  Jesus,  according  to  all  of  the 
Synoptists,  predicts  his  future  "coming  in 
the  clouds  of  Heaven"  ^  is  evidence  that  he 
thought  he  was  to  be  God's  representative 
returning  to  help  the  world  in  a  supernatural 
way. 

In  the  Fourth  Gospel  we  are  told  that,  al- 
though absent  in  the  body,  he  will  not  leave 
us  comfortless,  but  will  come  to  us  through 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Comforter,  whom  the 
Father  will  send  in  his  name,  and  one  of  whose 
chief  functions  will  be  to  interpret  his  life  and 
teachings  to  the  men  of  each  generation.^ 
This  is  a  characteristic  Johannine  interpreta- 
tion, which  does  not  appear  in  the  earlier 
records  in  the  same  form.     The  Spirit  will 

» Matt.  28 :  20. 

2  Matt.  26:64;   Mark  14:62;   Luke  21 :  27. 

'  John  14:  18,  20,  26;   cf.  IS  :  26. 


THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  lOI 

reprove  the  world  of  sin,  and  act  as  the  stim- 
ulus to  conscience,  always  keeping  belief  in 
Christ  as  of  primary  importance,  and  glorify- 
ing his  person  before  men.^  He  is  to  bring 
no  new  message,  only  to  interpret  Christ's 
person  and  teachings  to  successive  ages.^ 
Their  Lord  and  Master  is  to  be  removed  from 
their  sight,  but  he  is  to  love  and  help  them  ' 
still. 

Even  in  the  Synoptics  he  is  to  be  the  living 
inspirer  of  their  preaching,  who  will  make  their 
message  irresistible,*  and  it  is  In  his  "name" 
that  miracles  are  to  be  wrought,^  while  he 
promises  that  "where  two  or  three  are  gath- 
ered together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them"  ^  —  a  Synoptic  passage  which 
shows  the  most  exalted  Christology,  and  sup- 
plies a  well-attested  basis  for  the  doctrine 
of  the  Abiding  Christ  as  given  in  John. 
Whether  we  think  of  the  second  coming 
as  spiritual,  and  subjective,  according  to  the 

^  John  i6:  8,  9,  14,  15.  2johi^i5.i^^ 

'John  15:  10;   cf.  14:12;    15:7.  *  Luke  21 :  15. 

^  Mark  9:39;  cf.  prayer  in  his  name,  John  14:13;  16 :  23, 
24. 

•Matt.  18:20. 


102    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

Fourth  Evangelist,  or  as  largely  physical  and 
objective,  according  to  the  earlier  writers,  or 
as  a  combination  of  both,  we  cannot  escape 
from  the  conviction  that  Jesus  thought  that 
he  was  to  be  as  much  Master  of  the  Future, 
as  we  have  shown  him  to  be  Master  of  the 
Past  and  of  the  Present. 


IV.  CONCLUSION  — INTERPRETATION 
OF  THE   SELF-REVEALED   CHRIST 

We  have  completed  a  systematic  outline 
treatment  of  Jesus  Christ's  self-conscious- 
ness on  the  human  and  the  divine  sides 
as  shown  in  the  gospels.  An  attempt  must 
now  be  made  to  bring  together  and  har- 
monize these  two  aspects.  There  are 
two  words  which  bear  in  themselves  the 
explanation  of  the  unique  phenomena  of 
Christ's  personality.  The  first  is  the  word 
"Messiah,"  the  key  to  the  self-consciousness 
of  Jesus;  the  second,  the  word  "Incar- 
nation," which  interprets  the  Messiahship 
spiritually  in  universal  and  eternal  terms. 
The  first  ideal  was  a  purely  Jewish  one  with 
clear  historical  roots  and  nationalistic  tend- 
encies. This  Jesus  seized  upon  and  ac- 
cepted, "fulfilling"  it  —  that  is  filling  it  full 
of    new    and    broader    spiritual    significance. 

103 


I04    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

His  people  had  been  looking  for  a  great  de- 
liverer and  redeemer  —  the  Messiah,  and 
Jesus  claimed  the  title  for  himself.  This  has 
been  set  forth  at  length  above  and  is  merely 
referred  to  here  to  emphasize  it  as  the  main 
explanation  of  what  Jesus  thought  of  himself. 

The  second  word,  "Incarnation,"  is  of 
special  significance  as  we  pass  from  the  field 
of  Christ's  self-consciousness,  where  its  roots 
clearly  appear,  to  its  explanation  and  inter- 
pretation for  our  own  thought.  This  doc- 
trine, or  theory,  is  of  special  significance  as 
it  enables  us  to  accept  Jesus'  view  of  his 
complete  humanity,  together  with  his  con- 
viction that  God  had  filled  him  with  his  spirit 
to  a  degree  so  unparalleled  as  to  make  him 
historically  a  unique  figure. 

We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the  main 
reason  why  men  have  diflficulty  in  accepting 
this  doctrine  in  its  simple  New  Testament  form 
is  because  they  have  not  Jesus'  view  of  God. 
This  was  based  on  the  teaching  of  the  first 
chapter  of  the  Bible  —  that  God  created 
man,  and  created  him  "in  his  image."  It 
was    God's    spirit    breathed    into    man    that 


THE  SELF-REVEALED  CHRIST  105 

made  him  a  living  soul,  and  gave  him  the 
capacity  of  communion  with  his  Father  in 
Heaven.  To  Jesus  the  human  and  the  di- 
vine are  not  essentially  unlike,  but  kindred, 
and  God  is  first  of  all  one.^  There  are  not 
three  Gods,  or  three  distinct  personalities  in 
the  Godhead,  which  was  the  same  prior  to, 
during,  and  after  the  revelation  of  Jesus  in 
Palestine ;  so  views  of  the  Trinity  must  be 
adjusted  so  as  to  be  consistent  with  the 
fundamental  basis  of  God's  eternal  unity. 
The  old  Jewish  creed  still  holds  good  for 
Christianity  —  "The  Lord  our  God  is  one 
Lord."  The  historical  Jesus  was  not  in  his 
own  mind  equivalent  to,  or  an  integral  and 
essential  part  of  this  Godhead,  although  it 
demanded  the  Incarnation  as  an  expression 
of  its  outgoing  love.  The  man  of  Galilee 
was  the  chosen  vessel  for  this  divine  mani- 
festation or  revelation. 

It  is  as  clear  as  can  be  that  Jesus  prayed 
to  God,  and  that  he  considered  himself  his 
messenger,  and,  to  some  extent,  without  im- 
pairing ethical  or  spiritual  kinship,  his  sub- 

^  Mark  12  :  29. 


I06    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

ordinate.  Knowing  this,  and  realizing  his 
human  limitations  as  shown  in  the  first  part 
of  this  book,  it  does  not  seem  possible,  without 
restricting  the  idea  of  Deity,  to  call  him,  as 
he  walked  on  earth,  God,  and  we  cannot 
believe  that  he  would  have  himself  liked  to 
be  so  called.^  Yet  in  him  was  a  consciousness 
of  complete  righteousness  and  consecration, 
a  realization  of  his  headship  of  humanity  and 
of  his  mediatorship  between  man  and  his 
Maker.  He  even  accepted  titles  such  as  the 
"Son  of  God,"  which  were  supported  by  acts 
indicating  that  he  believed  himself  to  be 
God's  chosen  medium  for  the  Incarnation  — 
the  revelation  of  Deity  in  and  through  hu- 
manity. It  is  this  realization  in  one  man  of 
God's  purpose  for  all  men,  rather  than  any 
difference  of  essence  or  potentiality  between 
Jesus  and  his  brethren,  that  makes  him,  as 
far  as  we  know,  the  only  perfect  son  of  the 
one  Father. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  rightly 
understood  is  the  best  safeguard  of  the 
Christian    view    of    Jesus    of    Nazareth.     It 

iCf.  Luke  i8:  19. 


THE  SELF-REVEALED  CHRIST  107 

balances  the  human  and  divine  sides  of  his 
nature.  It  assumes  that  he  was  a  man, 
that  he  lived  a  normal  life  in  the  flesh,  that 
he  was  a  completely  human  figure  who  can 
be  placed  historically.  In  the  words  of  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  he  was  born  of  one  known 
as  "the  Virgin  Mary,"  "suffered  under  Pon- 
tius Pilate,  was  crucified,  dead  and  buried." 
These  facts  assert  his  definite  historicity. 
He  was  not  a  vague  apparition,  but  a  concrete 
human  personality.  Yet  the  power  he  pos- 
sessed was  divine.  It  came  from  God.  The 
spirit  which  entered  his  soul  was  the  Eternal 
Spirit.  Without  the  theory  that  God  dwelt 
in  Jesus,  that  he  became  incarnate  in  him, 
we  cannot  explain  the  perfect  life  the  Master 
led  or  the  great  deeds  which  he  did.  So  the 
human  life  of  the  man  of  Nazareth  was  raised 
to  the  divine  level,  of  which  every  life  is 
capable,  by  Jesus  allowing  himself  to  be 
completely  filled  of  God.  Christianity's  his- 
toric creed  is  very  close  to  the  thought  of  its 
founder  when  it  declares  "I  believe  in  God 
the  Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  only  Son  our 


I08    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

Lord."  The  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation, 
therefore,  Is  the  expression  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment truth  that  the  two  sides  or  natures  of 
Jesus  —  the  human  and  divine  —  discussed 
In  earlier  chapters,  have  revealed  their  latent 
kinship,  a  kinship  which  comes  to  the  surface 
whenever  a  man  allows  the  divine  spirit 
within  him  to  control  his  life.  But  It  Is  not 
enough  for  the  followers  of  Christ  to  copy 
Mohammedans  and  take  as  a  battle  cry 
"There  Is  but  one  God  and  Jesus  Christ  Is 
his  prophet."  Prophet  he  was  Indeed,  but 
something  Infinitely  greater  too  —  revealer 
and  revelation  of  the  love  of  God.  He  not 
merely  preached  It  and  proclaimed  It,  but  he 
manifested  It  through  his  own  life  of  perfect 
righteousness  and  service. 

He  was  the  point  of  contact  between  the 
Logos  —  the  active  principle  or  expression 
of  Deity,  the  outgoing  Word  of  God  —  and 
humanity.  That  Jesus  was  conscious  of  the 
uniqueness  of  this  divine  revelation,  can- 
not be  doubted.  We  may  find  that  some  of 
his  so-called  "miracles"  are  legendary,  some 
of  the  "logla"  altered,  some   of   the   events 


THE  SELF-REVEALED  CHRIST  109 

misrepresented,  but  no  amount  of  scholarly 
criticism  —  and  the  more  we  get  of  it,  of  a 
reverent  kind,  the  better  —  can  efface  the 
picture  of  the  one  man  who  has  known  him- 
self sinless,  and  who  was  "the  express  image 
of  his  Father's  person."  In  him  we  see  man 
raised  by  his  Maker  to  divine  heights.  Men 
are  created  and  limited,  and  Jesus  Christ 
did  not  consider  himself  an  exception  to  this 
rule.  God  is  uncreated  and  unlimited.  Men 
were  not  created  to  become  Gods,  but  through 
communion  with  the  Eternal  Spirit  to  be- 
come Godlike.  God  is  trying  to  incarnate 
himself  in  every  one  of  us,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  some  day  we  may  all  realize  our 
latent  divinity,  as  did  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and 
be  in  a  measure  Christs  —  perfect  men  in 
love  and  faith.  Then  the  words  of  the  Apos- 
tles' Creed  that  Jesus  is  God's  "on/y  Son" 
may  be  no  longer  true,  but  the  Master's 
purpose  will  have  been  advanced  towards 
realization.  For  if  ever  that  day  comes, 
the  uniqueness  of  Jesus  Christ  will  stand  out 
the  more  prominently,  as  without  him  it 
would    have    been    impossible    to    reach    his 


no    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

level.  Our  relation  to  Christ  will  then  be 
like  that  of  Christ  to  God,  or  like  that  of  a 
life  of  Christ  to  the  Bible,  for  in  each  case  the 
first  named  has  power  which  may  be  inherent 
but  which  was  nevertheless  originally  deriv- 
ative. 

Jesus  did  not  believe  that  he  was  the 
Eternal  God  or  the  world's  Creator.  But 
he  was  conscious  that  his  relationship 
to  the  Godhead  was  representative,  and  in 
its  manifestation  unique.  He  knew  that 
his  life  sprang  from  that  of  the  Almighty 
Spirit,  and  that  his  coming  into  the  world 
was  no  accident,  but  part  of  God's  eternal 
purpose.  He  was  also  conscious  that  he 
would  serve  after  his  death  as  the  historical 
mediator  between  God  and  man,  and  that  he 
would  exert  for  all  time  a  determining  power 
in  the  act,  or  rather  the  process,  of  salvation 
—  using  the  phrase  in  its  broad  meaning. 
But  just  what  he  thought  of  his  metaphysi- 
cal relationship  to  the  Godhead,  that  is,  his 
view  of  its  essence  as  distinct  from  its  mani- 
festation, we  are  not  told  by  the  Master  him- 
self, and  ecclesiastics  should  be  more  lenient 


THE  SELF-REVEALED  CHRIST  m 

in  judging  those  who  prefer  to  leave  the 
mystery  veiled  where  Jesus  left  it.  We 
have  been  considering  what  he  thought  of 
himself  when  he  lived  a  human  life  in  Pal- 
estine, and  its  significance,  rather  than  what 
he  may  have  become  after  he  was  declared  to 
be  "the  Son  of  God  with  power  ...  by  the 
resurrection  from  the  dead."  ^ 

Of  one  thing  the  Christian  feels  sure  — 
Jesus  Christ  carries  complete  conviction  to 
his  soul.  He  bears  his  own  authority  by  his 
life,  his  character,  and  his  message.  Both 
heart  and  mind,  strengthened  by  personal 
experience,  say  that  he  is  God's  own  word  to 
his  disciples,  summing  up  in  his  personality 
the  most  Godlike  traits  and  ideals  known 
to  man.  Christian  theologians,  therefore, 
have  been  right  in  thinking  the  Incarnation 
the  supreme  fact  in  history,  for  God  did 
become  manifest  in  the  flesh  in  the  man  Jesus 
of  Nazareth.     This  is  the  essential  fact. 

But  let  us  remember  that  this  manifesta- 
tion is  not  necessarily  dependent  upon  any 
theory  as  to  his  birth.  The  believer  in  the 
^  Romans  i :  4. 


112    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

Virgin  Birth  and  the  believer  in  the  natural 
birth  of  Jesus  may  both  place  their  faith  in 
the  same  Incarnation.  The  former  view, 
in  spite  of  the  slight  historical  evidence  for 
it,^  has  prevailed  in  the  past,  and  has  prob- 
ably helped,  in  uncritical  ages,  to  emphasize 
the  uniqueness  of  Christ.  The  second  view 
is  likely  to  gain  strength  in  the  future.  It  has 
one  advantage  :  it  makes  the  Christ-ideal 
seem  more  attainable  to  us  as  human  beings, 
if  we  follow  in  the  Master's  footsteps.  But 
whichever  be  the  true  explanation,  we 
should  always  remember  that  the  fact  of  the 
Incarnation  —  the  entrance  by  God  into  the 
life  of  humanity  in  and  through  Jesus  Christ 
the  Messiah  —  is  infinitely  more  important 
than  the  method.  It  is  this  great  fact  which 
enables  us  to  accept  his  "divinity"  —  a 
term  which  is  more  in  keeping  with  the  ear- 
liest tradition  than  the  word  "deity"  — 
and  makes  it  possible  for  us  to  believe  in 
Jesus,  and  not  merely  to  believe  as  he 
believed. 

^  The  only  Gospel  references  to  it  are  Matt.  I  :  l8  and 
Luke  1:35.     Paul  seems  to  have  had  no  knowledge  of  it. 


THE  SELF-REVEALED  CHRIST  113 

We  should  avoid  two  extremes  —  calling 
the  historical  person  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  God ; 
or  referring  to  him  as  merely  one  of  the 
world's  many  prophets,  "Moses,  Isaiah,  Jesus, 
Paul,  Luther."  The  wisest  plan  is  to  retain 
the  emphasis  of  the  double  name  Jesus 
Christ,  so  common  in  the  Acts  and  in  the 
Pauline  Epistles  —  the  first  standing  for  his 
personal,  human  designation ;  the  second,  for 
his  dignity  and  title  as  "the  anointed  of  God. " 
We  should  think  of  him,  as  he  seems  to  have 
thought  of  himself,  and  as  he  was  considered  by 
the  early  disciples,^  as  a  man  among  men  who 
by  the  completeness  of  his  consecration  to 
God,  and  by  the  realization  of  a  great  his- 
torical ideal,  which  he  spiritualized  and 
broadened,  became  the  Messiah  —  the  one 
and  the  only  one,  who  by  the  effective  ex- 
ample of  his  life,  death,  teachings,  and  char- 
acter has  made  complete  divine  sonship  possi- 
ble for  all  hum.anity.  In  a  word  Jesus  believed 
that  he  was  the  Christ,  and  there  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  not  accept  his  belief  as  our 
own. 

^  I  Tim.  2:5;  Romans  5  :  15. 


114    WHAT  JESUS  CHRIST  THOUGHT  OF  HIMSELF 

We  may  close  with  the  final  words  of  the 
original  gospel  attributed  to  John:  "these 
are  written,  that  ye  might  believe  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  and  that  be- 
lieving ye  might  have  life  through  his  name."  ^ 
*  John  20:31. 


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The  Gospel  of  Good  Will  as  Revealed  in 
Contemporary  Christian  Scriptures 

The  Lyman  Beecher  Lectures  at  Yale  University  for  1916 

By  WILLIAM   DeWITT  HYDE 

President  of  Bowdoin  College  and  Author  of  "  The  Five  Great 
Philosophies  of  Life,"  etc. 

Cloth,  i.-2mo 

This  book  goes  straight  to  the  heart  of  the  Gospel  to  be 
preached  and  practiced  —  the  Gospel  that  Christ  expects  men 
to  be  great  enough  to  make  the  good  of  all  affected  by  their 
action,  the  object  of  their  wills,  as  it  is  the  object  of  the  will  of 
God.  "  The  Christian,"  President  Hyde  writes,  "  is  not  a  '  plas- 
ter saint'  who  holds  'safety  first'  to  be  the  supreme  spiritual 
grace,  but  the  man  who  earns  and  spends  his  money,  controls 
his  appetites,  chooses  peace  or  war  and  does  whatever  his  hand 
finds  to  do  with  an  eye  single  to  the  greatest  good  of  all  con- 
cerned. Sin  is  falling  short  of  this  high  heroic  aim.  ...  To 
the  Christian  every  secular  vocation  is  a  chance  to  express  Good 
Will  and  sacrifice  is  the  price  he  gladly  pays  for  the  privilege. 
.  .  .  Christian  character  and  Christian  virtues  will  come  not  by 
direct  cultivation  but  as  by-products  of  Good  Will  expressed  in 
daily  life.  The  church  is  a  precious  and  sacred  instmment  for 
transforming  men  and  institutions  into  sons  and  servants  of 
Good  Will."  These  extracts  indicate  in  a  measure  the  trend  of 
President  Hyde's  theme  which  he  has  treated  fully  and  in  a 
practical  way  that  will  appeal  to  all  thinkers. 


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Three  Religious  Leaders  of  Oxford  and 
Their  Movements  :   John  Wycliffe,  John 
Wesley,  John  Henry  Newman 

By  S.  PARKES  CADMAN 

Cloth,  8vo 

This  book  deals  with  three  great  Englishmen,  great 
Christians,  great  Churchmen,  and  loyal  sons  of  Ox- 
ford, who,  in  Dr.  Cadraan's  opinion,  are  the  foremost 
leaders  in  religious  life  and  activity  that  university 
has  yet  given  to  the  world.  "  Many  prophets,  priests 
and  kings,"  writes  Dr.  Cadman,  "have  been  nour- 
ished within  her  borders,  but  none  who  in  significance 
and  contribution  to  the  general  welfare  compare  with 
Wycliffe,  the  real  originator  of  European  Protestant- 
ism ;  Wesley,  the  Anglican  priest  who  became  the 
founder  of  Methodism  and  one  of  the  makers  of 
modern  England  and  of  English-speaking  nations ; 
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Why  Men  Pray 

By  CHARLES  LEWIS  SLATTERY 

Rector  of  Grace  Church,  New  York  City 

Cloth,  i2mo,  7S  cents 

Dr.  Slattery  defines  prayer  roughly  as  "talking 
with  the  unseen."  In  his  book  he  does  not  argue 
about  prayer  but  rather  sets  down  in  as  many  chap- 
ters six  convictions  which  he  has  concerning  it. 
These  convictions  are,  first,  that  all  men  pray ;  sec- 
ond, that  prayer  discovers  God,  that,  in  other  words, 
when  men  become  conscious  of  their  prayer  they 
find  themselves  standing  face  to  face  with  one  whom 
in  a  flash  they  recognize  as  God ;  third,  prayer  unites 
men;  fourth,  God  depends  on  men's  prayer;  fifth, 
prayer  submits  to  the  best ;  and  sixth,  prayer  receives 
God. 


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The  Centennial  History  of  the 
American  Bible  Society 

By  henry  OTIS   DWIGHT,  LL.D. 

Recording  Secretary  of  the  Society 

In  two  volumes;  cloth,  8vo 

The  American  Bible  Society  was  organized  in 
May,  1816.  Its  work  has  been  so  interwoven  with 
the  development  of  the  American  republic  that  there 
will  be  felt  a  very  general  interest  in  this  account  of 
its  one  hundred  years  of  existence.  This  has  been 
prepared  by  the  Recording  Secretary  who,  for  many 
months,  has  been  engaged  in  gathering  the  necessary 
data  and  in  writing  the  narrative.  The  volume  will 
be  found  full  of  information  not  only  as  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  society  but  also  as  to  the  results  achieved 
in  its  distribution  of  the  Scriptures  throughout  this 
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